THE LIES HAVE IT

DAWN FRENCH REVEALS TO YOLANTHE FAWEHINMI WHY SHE WAS TEMPTED BACK INTO STARRING IN A NEW SITCOM

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DAWN FRENCH hasn't done a sitcom in a while and wasn't planning to star in one anytime soon, either.

But when The Vicar of Dibley star got a phone call from Paul Mayhew-Archer - a co-writer on the classic BBC comedy - she was talked into joining the cast of Can You Keep a Secret?

“I definitely didn’t want to do a sitcom, that’s for absolute sure,” admits Dawn, 68.

“I got a phone call from Paul, who bullied me and said that [his son] Simon had written a script. He said, ‘I know I shouldn't do this. I’m supposed to go by your agent and everything, but I've got Parkinson’s, I'm old now, and it’s my son you met all those years ago, who has written something with you in mind’

“He asked if I could read it. I couldn't hide behind my agent or give a flat no. So I agreed I'll have a read and make embarrassing notes about why I can’t do it.”

The new six-part comedy series, which screenwriter Simon Mayhew-Archer based on parents Paul and Julie, follows ‘widow’ Debbie Fendon, played by Dawn, who makes an outlandish decision after her husband William, played by Mark Heap, 68, unexpectedly dies.

Turns out Debbie is not actually a widow, because William didn’t really die — he was just mistakenly declared dead - but the two retirees come up with a plan to ensure they still receive a life insurance payout.

When their son Harry, played by Craig Roberts, 34, eventually finds out, he struggles to keep his parents’ fraudulent act away from his police officer wife, Neha, played by Mandip Gill, 37, and his moral conscience at bay.