Nigel Farage’s retirement to be the subject of a BBC comedy
"Nigel Farage is the gift that keeps on giving,” says star Kevin Bishop. "There is the moustache and now the appearance at the Trump rally, it’s going to be fun...”
The BBC is making a comedy about Nigel Farage’s life after stepping down from UKIP, RadioTimes.com can reveal.
Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back will be a one-off spoof for BBC2 starring comic actor Kevin Bishop as the former politician coping with life out of the limelight. Insiders describe the character as a “cross between Basil Fawlty and Enoch Powell”.
The title of the playful comedy comes from the line used by Farage when he stepped down after the EU referendum campaign and will also include a take on Farage’s German-born wife Kirsten Mehr, who learns – seemingly to her dismay – that she now has to spend more time with her husband.
Kevin Bishop, recently seen playing snooker promoter Barry Hearn in acclaimed BBC comedy drama The Rack Pack, told RadioTimes.com that he was excited about the new role.
"Nigel Farage is the gift that keeps on giving,” he said. "There is the moustache and now the appearance at the Trump rally, it’s going to be fun.”
"On the 23rd June, Britain voted to leave the European Union," added the BBC. "Then, on the 4th July, Nigel Farage, the man who had made it all possible, resigned saying he wanted his life back. But what sort of life has he gone back to, and how does a man forever in the spotlight fill his days now he has nothing to do?"
The 30-minute comedy is being produced by Zeppotron, part of the Endemol Shine group, and was commissioned for BBC2 by comedy controller Shane Allen and commissioning editor Alex Moody. The executive producer is Peter Holmes.
Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back is written by Alan Connor (The Rack Pack, Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe, Young Doctor’s Notebook) and Shaun Pye (The Rack Pack, A Young Doctor’s Notebook, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret). It is being produced by Kate Daughton.
If the show is a success it could be made into a full series, it is believed. Whether Farage himself makes another comeback, of course, remains to be seen.
