DAWN'S WIDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

JACKPOT Gill, French, Heap and Roberts star

- Compiled by RACHEL BERESFORD

Dawn French didn't want to do another sitcom. But when the script came through for new BBC One comedy Can You Keep a Secret? the Vicar of Dibley star jumped at the chance of playing bossy Debbie Fendon.

"I definitely didn't want to do a sitcom, that was for absolute sure," she says. "I just thought, 'Oh God, I'll have to read this and make embarrassing notes about why I can't. Anything, anything, to not do it!