Reuniting with his Nurse co-star Esther Coles

Paul Whitehouse and Esther Coles are reuniting for a new comedy.

The pair, who starred in BBC Two's mental health sitcom Nurse, once again butt heads in Coles's writing debut, the loosely autobiographical Radio 4 comedy The Allotment.

The green-fingered Coles, who keeps bees and her own allotment in London, plays Esther in the 30-minute pilot episode, Talking to the Bees, with Whitehouse as her troublesome neighbour, Geoff, who wades into her beehive in a home-made beekeeping outfit in search of his stolen pumpkin.

Mark Benton co-stars as Esther's fellow allotment owner and would-be romancer Robert, while Jane Horrocks voices her mother Grandma Maggs. Arabella Weir is Geoff's wife Sally and newcomer Patricia Allison plays Esther's daughter Molly, who uses her shed as a makeshift study for her exams.

The pilot, which was recorded at the BBC's Maida Vales Studios in May airs on October 2 and is produced and directed by Spaced and Upstart Crow's Gareth Edwards.

Coles previously wrote additional material for the short-lived television adaptation of Nurse, which ran for four episodes in 2015.

Playing a community nurse visiting a series of psychiatric patients, mostly played by Whitehouse, the comedy-drama began life as a Radio 4 show in 2014 and returned to the channel last year after the BBC Two version was cancelled.

A new series of the radio show is planned for next year.

- by  Jay Richardson

Published: 11 Sep 2017