Lee Mack is to star in a new sitcom, ‘Semi-Detached’.
The 51-year-old comedian will lead the cast in the upcoming BBC Two comedy as wedding DJ Stuart who faces a mid-life crisis with his ex-wife living a few feet from his new family.
He explained: "It’s about a man who lives with his much younger girlfriend and he’s living opposite his ex-wife who lives with her new fella. It’s very claustrophobic in the sense that he lives on a cul-de-sac and he’s only a few steps away from his ex-wife across the road."
Samantha Spiro and Ellie White join the cast as the ex-wife and new girlfriend respectively, as well as Neil Fitzmaurice, Clive Russell, Sarah Hoare, and Patrick Baladi as more immediate family members who make Stuart feel suffocated on the street.
But the talented cast left Lee doubting his own ability, as he believed they are all much better actors than he is.
He questioned: "They really were an amazingly good cast. I was surrounded by people that are far more experienced actors than me, especially in the world of comedy acting. I was nervous, I turned up thinking, ‘Can I do this? These guys are much, much better than me,’ and they were brilliant."
The six 30-minute episodes will follow every step Stuart takes as he becomes claustrophobic in his own home, which became a struggle for Lee as he worked twice as hard as he ever has before.
He added: "The main challenge is that I’m in every single scene. I think there was one scene, the only time in the whole series, where the camera follows someone else. I’m not in every shot so sometimes it’s cut between different characters, but my character is in every scene. I used to complain that actors say ‘I’m tired’ but now I’m like, ‘I’ll keep my mouth shut when actors complain it’s tiring.’"