Dawn French reveals why she had to star in new comedy Can You Keep a Secret and talks sitcom's emotive real-life inspiration

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

Dawn French was adamant she didn’t want to star in another sitcom. Adamant. So, when her old friend Paul Mayhew-Archer, the co-writer of The Vicar of Dibley, asked her to star in his son Simon’s first sitcom, her heart sank.

“Good sitcoms are as rare as hen’s teeth,” she says. “I honestly didn’t even want to read it, but Paul is very charming and he’s unsung in many ways. All the credit seems to go to Richard Curtis, but they definitely co-wrote Vicar and he was a very valuable part of it. So, I thought I’d have to reply and be kind about declining this script.”

It may not have helped that French first met Simon as an 11-year-old who’d accompanied his dad to a Vicar read-through. But since then Simon has become a producer, making the award-winning This Country starring Charlie and Daisy May Cooper. Meanwhile, Paul has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

That diagnosis was the inspiration for Simon’s first script, Can You Keep a Secret?, a sitcom about a Parkinson’s sufferer called William who – through a set of farcical circumstances – is accidentally declared dead. His wife Debbie decides to keep up the pretence to claim money on their life insurance, and what unfolds is a six-part comedy about the family battling to keep their secret from a set of eccentric neighbours in the cosy village where they live.

“I read it and I thought, actually, this is fantastic,” French says. “It’s about an oddball family who pull off a massive crime, but that’s almost by-the-by. Simon’s largely writing about his dad, who is cheerful and funny about having Parkinson’s, which is a devastating disease.

“I loved how small Simon’s script was. It’s about this little family, and I could see Simon’s heart in it, all the love for his mum and dad, and the craziness of what real families are like, how ugly and awkward they can be.”

So she agreed to play Debbie, and was thrilled when Friday Night Dinner and Green Wing star Mark Heap was cast as William, alongside Craig Roberts as their son Harry and Doctor Who’s Mandip Gill as Harry’s wife, Neha. Heap says that part of the role’s appeal was reuniting with French: the pair had already played a married couple in ITV’s 2020 comedy drama, The Trouble with Maggie Cole, and remained friends ever since.

“I really felt I could do something with it,” says Heap. “I loved Simon’s humour. People might ask, ‘Should you be making light of Parkinson’s? It’s not funny, is it?’ But anything can be funny. I did some research and it does become a ghastly disease in later years, and if I had to play that, that would have been a hell of a lot more challenging, not just physically, but it would be harder to make humour out of it. But Paul made a very good documentary about living with Parkinson’s in the early days, and it was sweet and humorous.”

He adds with a smile, “Also, taking the job meant living with Dawn as husband and wife for three months. This is a show about people who have tragic flaws, and I knew Dawn had lots of flaws she could bring to set.”

French says she was never concerned about making light of Parkinson’s, adding, “There’s a sort of permission, because Paul’s involved. He came to read-throughs and absolutely approves of it. Simon and Paul are a family that survives through humour, and they’ve had a lot to survive.”

Still, Can You Keep a Secret? has a big moral quandary at its heart: will audiences root for this family who are committing a crime and lying to their friends? The case is not clear-cut. Firstly, the family haven’t been allowed to claim for William’s treatment on their health insurance, as happens to many in real life, and so they feel ripped off and let down. Secondly, they give some of the pay-out to good causes.

“People can easily persuade themselves, ‘Insurance companies are all trying to rip us off, so it’s ultimate justice that we keep the money’,” says Heap. “Or, ‘I pay too much tax anyway, so why can’t I have a bit extra?’ It’s moral weakness, but you often root for [William and Debbie] because they’re so charming and because they’re giving money to charity. That’ll be my excuse when I do a bank heist.”

“Also, they want the money for their kids, like every set of parents,” adds French. “You want to make sure they’re left with a bit of a cushion, don’t you? But William and Debbie are also tempted along the way with little treats for themselves, like a patio pressure washer and an LED face mask.”

French is, of course, best known for her sketch shows with Jennifer Saunders and The Vicar of Dibley, and has reached national treasure status with her twinkly, kind persona. So, I can’t help wondering if she had any reservations about taking on the role of Debbie, who often isn’t an entirely likeable character.

“I accept that I do have a reputation as a trustworthy, cardigan-wearing decent human,” she says. “It’s part of the baggage I carry – happy baggage that people imagine I’m a very decent vicar. But even that vicar was greedy, selfish, very rude sometimes and susceptible to weakness with lust and sins: it was just wrapped up with a lovely bow. It was a show where we talked about bestiality, a show where quite shocking things happened: more shocking and edgy than almost anything else I did.

“I’ve done dramas where I’ve played murdering nurses and lots of other edgy sketches with Jennifer, but I do accept I have that ‘decent’ reputation. That doesn’t mean I can’t explore this, though.”

Another point of humour in the new series comes from William and Debbie talking openly about their sex life, which is mortifying for their son Harry. I tell French I find it refreshing to see an older couple having a healthy sex life, and she agrees.

“I’m an older person and I might not talk about it much, but I’m certainly still trying to do it,” she says. “Why would it be off the table? It’s on the table for ever, I hope, unless something prevents it. Perhaps less on the table, more on a comfy horizontal bed at the correct height, these days!”

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Can You Keep a Secret? begins at 9.30pm on Wednesday 7 January on BBC One and iPlayer.

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