Can You Keep a Secret? will pair her with Mark Heap. 

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.