The transmission date has been confirmed for Kate And Koji, the new ITV1 sitcom starring Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola.

It will air at 8pm on Wednesdays, startong on March 18.

Brenda Blethyn will take on the title role of Kate and film actor Jimmy Akingbola taking on the role of Koji.

Kate & Koji centres around a working-class woman who runs an old-fashioned café in a seaside town and who develops a strong, if sometimes volatile, friendship with an asylum-seeking African doctor.

Although from very different worlds, Kate and Koji are similar in ways which they do not recognise, including a dogged determination to never back down.

It will also star Blake Harrison and Barbara Flynn. Blake Harrison plays Kate's nephew 'Medium' and Barbara Flynn plays Councillor Bone, Kate's lifelong arch enemy.