In My Country, written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye, is set in a run-down guesthouse in North London.
Djalili plays Navid, a down-on-his-luck Syrian immigrant who is a permanent resident, while Stephen K Amos plays Johnny, a Nigerian newly arrived in Britain.
The pilot episode, which will be recorded in front of a live studio audience later this month, also includes Thai actress Vee Vimolmal. Other characters are an immigrant from Kosovo, half a dozen Polish builders who work 18 hours a day, and the landlady who lives next door.
The show has been picthed as both 'Men Behaving Badly meets Rising Damp' and 'Only Fools And Horses mixed with Goodness Gracious Me!'
BBC comedy head Mark Freeland from the BBC has said of the show: '[There's] a black tenant and a Pole and there's a Thai character in it. But we didn't sit down and say we want a multicultural sitcom. It was just a really good script.’
Djalili has previously appeared in another sitcom based in a multi-ethnic hotel, when he played handyman Nasim in Whoopi Goldberg's 2004 NBC sitcom, Whoopi!
