Dawn French reveals whether she can keep a secret

Dawn French has said she can keep a secret as she launched her new sitcom about an "oddball family" who commit fraud.

The new BBC sitcom - Can You Keep a Secret? - airs later and was filmed and set in Somerset. It tells the story of a retired couple who are presented with the opportunity to claim life insurance when the husband is mistakenly declared to have died.

French, who plays 'widow' Debbie Fendon, said: "This is a sitcom about a very strange little oddball family who commit a massive fraud but pretend that it's no big deal."

When asked if she can keep a secret herself, she joked: "I have kept a secret for a very long time. Jennifer Saunders is an alien."

The story follows Debbie Fendon and her husband, William, as they attempt to pull off a life insurance scam.

Writer Simon Mayhew-Archer, who produced the award-winning BBC comedy This Country, set in Gloucestershire, said he drew inspiration for some of the characters from his own "weird little family".

In the sitcom, the husband has Parkinson's – just like Mayhew-Archer's real father Paul, who is the celebrated comedy writer who worked with French as co-writer of the Vicar of Dibley.

William, who is mistakenly reported to have died, is played by Mark Heap, a regular from sitcom classics like Green Wing, Spaced and Friday Night Dinner.

"When I saw the script I thought this is a great story," he said.

"I saw an early draft of the first episode and I thought it was handled very well and felt very organic."

Also featuring Craig Roberts, best known for Submarine, and Mandip Gill, who has starred in Doctor Who, the six-part series also saw filming at Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol. But it was mostly shot in Axbridge, Cheddar and Winscombe, which all became parts of the fictional village of Colberton for the comedy.

"It's been really good for me to go to a place I've never worked before," Gill said.

"We worked in Axbridge and people were sat at the coffee shop just enjoying watching the scene play out.

"I thought that was actually quite nice because you know it's their little town that we've come to and it's just so picturesque."

Mayhew-Archer said he felt pressure going into the sitcom, after the success of This Country, and admitted to crying when French agreed to do the show.

He said he wanted to make something that found comedy in the truth of what he was living through.

"It's being that sandwich generation, where you're between incontinent toddlers and incontinent OAPs – and it's nappies at both ends."

The first episode airs on BBC One on 7 January at 21:30 GMT, and the whole series will be available on iPlayer.

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