British comedy hero Dawn French makes a long-overdue return to sitcom with the BBC’s Can You Keep A Secret?
Six years since she last played Geraldine in The Vicar of Dibley, she stars as Debbie Fendon in the dark comedy in which Axbridge, Cheddar and the surrounding area double as the fictional village of ‘Colberton’.
The six-part series sees Debbie and her husband William, played by Mark Heap (Friday Night Dinner, Upstart Crow) struggling to keep their heads after landing a financial windfall when William is mistakenly pronounced dead and they and their son Harry (Craig Roberts) and his Police Officer wife Neha (Mandip Gill) become embroiled in an outlandish tale of farce and subterfuge.
Written by Simon Mayhew-Archer, who also penned the Westcountry-set BBC Comedy This Country, filming took place in February and March 2025 and producers Big Talk Studios based production at The Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol.
Exteriors of the Fendon family home were shot at Ten Acre Woods near Axbridge and the town’s Medieval square features in numerous scenes, with a temporary bus stop being added for some.
Louise Cooling runs Ripley Antiques and Interiors in the square.
We’re very proud of our little town and our amazing community. It’s great to share it and show it off a bit.
Dawn French said we had a beautiful shop and told Mary Matthews – the lady who makes our cakes – that her lemon drizzle cake was the best she’d ever had. Mary is so proud of that and she tells everybody. She’s even had it put on a t-shirt.
It’s hard to keep a small business in a small community going and all of this helps. It’s such a lovely buzz whenever there is filming in the square. It always creates excitement.
The Day Lewis Pharmacy on Meadow Street doubles as Colberton Pharmacy and several scenes were shot on the nearby A38 Turnpike Road. Bowling club scenes were filmed just over the border in North Somerset.
The production also spent a week filming at the Waterfall Café and Ice Cream in Cheddar Gorge, rebranding it as Carol’s Fish & Chip Shop. A family-run business for more than 40 years, the café interiors were repainted orange and it appears in several scenes including a meeting between Debbie and Pigfish in episode three.
Matt Tovey runs the café with him parents Kelvin and Debbie.
I had a call asking if they could use the café for filming and to be honest, at first I thought it was a scammer.
The whole experience was a real eye opener. You don’t appreciate just how many different people are involved in something like this.“It’s something that you might never do again and you’re seeing people that you have only seen on the screen before and may never see again.
“They did a scene with Dawn French sat on table three in the corner, so I call that the Dawn French table now.”
All six episodes of Can You Keep A Secret? are available to stream on BBC iPlayer Can You Keep a Secret? – BBC iPlayer
