The show pairs French with Mark Heap as a retired couple trying to perpetuate an insurance scam. 

Updated 10/03/25: Further cast revealed.

As filming begins on Can You Keep a Secret?, the BBC have announced the rest of the show’s main cast.

The show, from writer Simon Mayhew-Archer (Josh) was announced last August, as a vehicle for Dawn French and Mark Heap. It follows a couple who, when the husband is mistakenly declared dead, decide to keep the insurance payout.

Now, we know that Craig Roberts (Submarine) and Mandip Gill (Doctor Who) are to join them. Roberts plays the couple’s son Harry, while Gill is their daughter-in-law Neha.

For Gill, it’s another role as a police role after her turn as Doctor Who‘s probationary PC Yazmin Khan. The show’s blurb describes local police offier Neha as “pathologically pragmatic” and positions her as a threat if she discovers her in-laws’ fraudulent ways.

Mandip Gill

Mandip Gill is returning to Doctor Who on audio, alongside Jodie Whittaker, for Big Finish’s The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures this July.

She also starred in the recent Paramount+ drama Curfew, and appeared in the romantic comedy This Time Next Year, released in 2024.

For more on Can You Keep a Secret?, check out the details below. We’ll keep you posted.

Original article (of 28/08/24) continues…

BBC announce a new Dawn French sitcom

The BBC have announced a new sitcom project for Dawn French which takes its premise from real-life events.

She’ll star in Can You Keep a Secret? as Debbie Fenton, a widow concealing the fact that her husband isn’t really dead!

French, who’s best known in sitcom terms for her role as Geraldine in The Vicar of Dibley, will appear alongside Mark Heap (Friday Night Dinner, Upstart Crow). It’s a reunion for the pair who worked together on the 2020 ITV comedy-drama The Trouble with Maggie Cole.

The new show comes from writer Simon Mayhew-Archer (Josh, This Country) and director Simon Hynd (Ghosts).

Here’s what we know about Can You Keep a Secret?

Dawn plays widow Debbie Fenton – granny, lawn bowler, tinpot dictator – who will stop at nothing to make sure her family’s protected. Unfortunately, most of the time the person they really need protecting from is her. When her hermit-like husband William (Mark Heap) unexpectedly dies, she makes an outlandish decision that will put the family under more pressure than ever before.

Because Debbie isn’t actually a widower and William didn’t really die – he was just mistakenly declared dead and the two retirees found themselves staring down the barrel of an opportunity too good to pass up. Just a few months hiding out in the loft waiting for the life insurance to pay out and then they can live out their golden years in peace.

This all proves a bit much for their easily frazzled son Harry who – despite his emotional shortcomings – has managed to acquire a family of his own and a potentially life changing insurance payout from his father’s ‘death’. Reunited with a dad he’s just buried and the reality that his parents have turned into a pensioner version of Bonnie and Clyde, Harry suddenly has a lot more to juggle. Sandwiched between two generations of toddlers, Harry finds himself navigating a very common stage of life – only this time, it’s criminal.

Set in the West Country, Can You Keep a Secret? is the story of an odd little family you haven’t met yet, but that you already know – a sitcom that places comedy icon Dawn French in the middle of some mischief we can all relate to.

Can Debbie Fenton and her family keep their secret? Or will one of them spill the beans?

Made by Big Talk Studios, Mayhay Studios and CBS Studios, the show will air on BBC One and the iPlayer.

We’ll keep you posted.