Update: The transmission date has been confirmed as October 30. Also the part of best mate that was originally reported to be played by Seann Walsh is now played by Nick Helm.

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan is to star and write his own sitcom for Sky 1

In The Reluctant Landlord (working title) Romesh is left running the local pub after his mischievous father left it to him in his will. He has never wanted to be a landlord, but his mum feels it is the only way to keep his dad’s legacy alive and his wife and kids are kids are having a ball there.

Starring Sian Gibson (Peter Kay’s Car Share) as his wife, Natasha, and comedian Nick Helm as best mate Lemon, this semi-autobiographical sitcom follows Romesh’s misadventures as he tries to offload the pub he doesn’t want, while his family use any amount of emotional blackmail to keep him at the heart of the place.

Ranganathan say: “After my father passed away and I was forced to run a pub a few years ago I remember thinking: ‘The best way to turn this into a positive would be to write a sitcom based on the situation for Sky 1.’ I am delighted to finally see this very specific long-term plan to fruition. The production team and channel have both been incredibly supportive. I say this both because it’s true and so that they can’t distance themselves from the project if it’s a failure .”

The Reluctant Landlord will go out in the 10pm slot. It is executive produced by Claire Whalley for What Larks Productions (producers of Damned), as well as Jon Mountague and Tilusha Ghelani for Sky 1.

The channel has a number of new comedy projects in the pipeline as well as this and the also just-announced Sick Of It starring Karl Pilkington. These include Living the Dream, a six-part series from the makers of Cold Feet starring Philip Glenister (Outcast, Mad Dogs) and Lesley Sharp (Scott & Bailey, Paranoid) as an English family attempting to live the American dream.