New sitcom based on The Oldie's cartoon strip

Simon Callow is to star in a new sitcom based on The Oldie magazine’s cartoon strip The Rebel.

The Gold channel has commissioned three half-hour episodes based on the incorrigible pensioner created by Andrew Birch.

Shakespeare in Love star Callow will play the lead character, Henry Palmer, a near 70-year-old who looks every bit the respectable, upstanding Brighton resident, but had never really put his rebellious Mod days behind him.

Callow said: ‘he Rebel is a wildly funny, edgy and sometimes rather searing new sitcom which could hardly be more now. 

‘Henry is very very angry, and he has much to be angry about i.e. everything in the world around him. He sees himself as a fearless exposer of cant and folly. Others sometimes have a different view of him. It's a part I can relate to very very easily.’

‘Simon Lupton, UKTV’s senior commissioning editor said: ‘We are really looking forward to bringing such an irrepressible character to life. Henry is going to demonstrate that young people don't have a monopoly on anarchy, and I suspect he'll ultimately bring out the rebel in us all. The marriage of an actor of the extraordinary calibre of Simon Callow, to a character with so much authenticity, heart and energy makes for an incredibly enticing addition to our original shows on Gold.’

Private Eye cartoonist Birch is scripting the show, which will be directed by Vadim Jean who helmed Leon the Pig Farmer It is being made by independent production house Retort ,whose managing director Jon Rolph will be an executive producer.

He said: ‘Henry might be talking about his generation, but he's refusing to fade away - Andrew Birch has created an everyday hero, and one we all should want to be when we grow up. We can't wait for the brilliant Simon Callow to bring to our screens Henry's tireless rebellion against the petty, the lazy, the small-minded and the stupid things that incite us all to take a stand.’

The Rebel is the latest original commission  from Gold, following John Hannah, Jo Joyner, Sarah Alexander in Marley's Ghosts and Robert Lindsay and Maureen Lipman in Bull.

<a href="http://www.birchcartoons.co.uk/untitled-gallery-50018/313149_tesco-the-rebel-the-oldie.html">Here</a> is an example of one of The Oldie strips.

Published: 15 Jan 2016