Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, W1A) is set to star as a mysterious one-eyed man in Gold’s brand-new comedy, Sandylands. The series is produced by King Bert Productions and is currently in production. 

Sandylands also stars Sanjeev Bhaskar (Unforgotten, Porters), David Walliams (The Midnight Gang, The Queen and I), Sophie Thompson (Detectorists, Coronation Street), Craig Parkinson (Line of Duty, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch), Simon Bird (Friday Night Dinner, The Inbetweeners), Natalie Dew (West End’s Bend It Like Beckham), Harriet Webb (White Gold, Scarborough), Hamza Jeetooa (Our Girl) and Bronwyn James (Harlots, Wild Bill).

Commenting on his role, Bonneville said: “Sanjeev Bhaskar disappearing at sea on a pedalo? How could I possibly miss out on the opportunity of a trip to the seaside to help with the investigation?” 

The three-part series follows twenty-seven-year-old Emily Verma (Dew) as she begrudgingly returns to her seaside hometown of Sandylands, following the news that her semi-estranged father Les Vegas (Bhaskar) is ‘lost at sea’ after a bloodied pedalo is found on the shore. Charged with putting his affairs in order, Emily quickly becomes a key person of interest for a mysterious one-eyed man (Bonneville), who’s recently arrived in Sandylands and works for the life insurance company that’s due to pay out over Les’ unfortunate demise.

Sandylands is written by Martin Collins and Alex Finch (writers for sketch group This Glorious Monster), directed by Michael Cumming (Brass Eye, Toast of London), produced by Rosemary McGowan for King Bert and exec produced by Jo Sargent.

Sandylands will air on Gold next year.