New BBC sitcom Can You Keep a Secret? starring Dawn French, Mark Heap, Craig Roberts and Mandip Gill, which is filmed and set in the West Country, is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Producers Big Talk Studios (The Outlaws) based production for the six-part series at The Bottle Yard Studios whilst filming predominantly in Somerset with Film Office support at locations in Axbridge and Cheddar, which became parts of the fictional village of Colberton for the comedy. The Bottle Yard Studios hosted bespoke sets for the loft room interiors in the Fendon’s family home, and also Back Projection using an action vehicle for filming driving scenes.
Can You Keep a Secret? – Attic room sets at The Bottle Yard Studios (images courtesy BBC)
Two local trainees from the All Set West Training programme delivered at The Bottle Yard Studios secured entry level roles on the production. Karen (46, from South Gloucestershire) secured her first credit as an Art Department Trainee on the production, and Ellie (age 33 from South Gloucestershire) joined the team as a Locations Assistant. Ellie says, “I would not have had this opportunity without the course as I had no knowledge or network before. It has completely changed my life and I feel so grateful to the team for all their ongoing support.”
In Can You Keep a Secret?, Dawn (French & Saunders, The Vicar of Dibley) plays widow Debbie Fendon – 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 – Friday Night Dinner, Green Wing) unexpectedly dies, she makes an outlandish decision that will put the family under more pressure than ever before.
Because Debbie isn’t actually a widow 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.
Can You Keep a Secret? series images courtesy BBC
This all proves a bit much for their easily frazzled son Harry (Craig Roberts – Submarine, The Fundamentals of Caring) 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’. What’s especially tricky for Harry is that his pathologically pragmatic wife Neha (Mandip Gill – Doctor Who, This Time Next Year) is a local police officer and, if she finds out about her in-laws’ fraudulent ways, the Fendons might have an issue.
Clearly Harry – reunited with a dad he’s just buried and the reality that his parents have turned into a pensioner version of Bonnie and Clyde – suddenly has a lot more to juggle. Sandwiched between two generations of toddlers, he finds himself navigating a very common stage of life – only this time, it’s criminal.
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 You Keep a Secret? (6×30) is a Big Talk Studios, Mayhay Studios and CBS Studios co-production for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The series was commissioned by Jon Petrie, Director of BBC Comedy. The Executive Producers are Kenton Allen, Simon Mayhew-Archer, Dawn French and Toby Welch; the Producers are Lauriel Martin and Joe Scantlebury, and the Director is Simon Hynd. The series is written and created by Simon Mayhew-Archer. The Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Tanya Qureshi. Can You Keep a Secret? is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution. Big Talk Studios is part of ITV Studios.
All episodes of Can You Keep a Secret? are now available on BBC iPlayer.