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Dawn French to play village gossip in a new ITV series Glass House

Dawn French has been cast as a village gossip in a new ITV series.

Glass House, which has been compared to Doc Martin and The Darling Buds Of May, will see French play Maggie Connors, a woman who pays no heed to the adage that “those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.

Set in Devon, the series will also star Julie Hesmondhalgh, Vicki Pepperdine and Patrick Robinson as locals.

Saskia Schuster, ITV’s comedy controller, said: “This new series will embrace its beautiful, idyllic south Devon setting as we meet the villagers of Thurlbury and find out how an innocent afternoon spent indiscreetly gossiping has a domino effect on the whole village.”

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Schuster described French’s character as making it “her business to know a bit about everyone’s lives”.

When a radio journalist interviews her for a small reportage piece about local life, she embellishes the personal lives of the locals, and her public gossip-fest sparks a fallout.

French said of the forthcoming six-part series: “It’s such a good story with a fantastic, funny, touching script by Mark Brotherhood. Let me at it!”