Anything with Dawn French in it is going to be worth watching and when Mark Heap is playing her husband you are surely onto a winner. Can You Keep A Secret? stars French and Heap as oddball country couple Debbie and William. The secret is the fact that William has to play dead as Debbie has cashed in their £250,000 insurance policy after an admin mix-up paid out even though he was alive and kicking.
The comedy comes from all sorts of angles. This is a world where everyone is a character and everything leads to a comic scenario. When a couple of friends pop in unexpectedly for a cuppa William has to duck into a cupboard – and for some inexplicable reason their son Harry (Craig Roberts) pops in with him. There is so little logic to this even Harry asks why does he have to hide, he's not even dead. Oh, and one of the visitors is blind, which means William can creep around when the other guest is in the loo.
If you like this level of comedy Can You Keep A Secret?, written by Simon Mayhew-Archer and reminiscent of the bizarre Canoe Man story a few years ago, will be just for you. It certainly has a confidence and it does try to go to places you wouldn't necessarily expect a sitcom to go to. William has Parkinson's (as does Mayhew-Archer's father Paul, who worked with French on Vicar of Dibley) and a habit of taking too much medication, which might have been why the germphobic doctor thought he was dead.
There are plenty of stand-out moments. When Mark complains about having to hide Debbie points out that he is so anti-social it should hardly make any difference: "You might as well have been dead for the last 68 years....what are you going to start missing next? Laser Quest?” She does love him of course.
Will they get away with it? Will Harry's police officer wife Neha (Mandip Gill) smell a rat or is she too distracted by dealing with the case of a local man sticking petrol pumps up his rear? Can You Keep A Secret? won't be winning any awards for originality but it might win one for the most times 'twat' is said in a sitcom.
Can You Keep A Secret? Wednesdays, BBC One and iPlayer.
Pictured: Neha Fendon (MANDIP GILL), Debbie Fendon (DAWN FRENCH), William Fendon (MARK HEAP), Harry Fendon (CRAIG ROBERTS)
Credit: BBC/Big Talk Studios/Nicky Johnston
