Filming has started on the new BBC3 comedy Top Coppers, starring 2014 Foster’s Award winner John Kearns and Best Newcomer nominee Steen Raskopoulos.

The six-part series due to be broadcast later this year is a spoof police series featuring the finest and weirdest detectives in the Justice City Police Department - Mitch Rust (Kearns) and John Mahogany (Raskopoulos).  

Regular cast members include Donovan Blackwood (Laters) as the brow-beaten Chief, Gabby Best as forensics expert Helga, Rio Myers as computer boffin Zach and Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh) as Grady, the corrupt mayor of Justice City.

The series also stars a host of cameos, including Kayvan Novak (Asylum, Fonejacker), Paul Ritter (Friday Night Dinner), James Fleet (The Vicar of Dibley), Terry Mynott (The Mimic), Simon Farnaby (Horrible Histories), Adam Riches, Lydia Rose Bewley (Plebs, The Inbetweeners Movie), Jessica Gunning (Law and Order) and Danny John-Jules (Red Dwarf). Kearns was recently seen as one of the knockabout sidekicks in Harry Hill’s ITV1 revival of Stars in their Eyes.

The series is created by Cein McGillicuddy and Andy Kinnear. It is directed by Cein McGillicuddy. The producer is Bertie Peek, and the executive producers are Dan Hine and Ash Atalla, for Roughcut Television. 

Chris Sussman, BBC Commissioning Editor Comedy, said: “I couldn't be more excited about Top Coppers. John Kearns and Steen Raskopoulos are two of the most exciting young comedians around, and the scripts are some of the funniest I've read in ages. It's fast-paced and brilliantly silly, and I don't know anyone who won't love it.”