The Chase host signed up for the project after learning The Durrells creator Simon Nye would be writing it.
Bradley Walsh has revealed that he didn’t know a great deal about The Darling Buds of May and his character Pop before signing up for The Larkins, ITV’s upcoming adaptation of H.E. Bates’ books.
Speaking at a Q&A for the drama, the former Doctor Who star said that, while he wasn’t familiar with the Larkin characters, he joined the project after learning that Simon Nye would be writing the project.
“When I got asked to play Pop, I said yes immediately and then I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, what have I done?’ Because everything that you do, there are massive time constraints on everything and other stuff that you do.”
He added: “The next question I asked was, and I don’t want to make him blush, was: ‘Who’s writing it?’ And they said, ‘Simon Nye’ and I was a massive fan of The Durrells in actual fact, because Simon’s body of work is amazing.
“I didn’t know the H.E. [Bates] books and I maybe watched one episode back in the day, in the ’90s, of the original show so it wasn’t really my sort of area of expertise but then they told me Simon was writing it and I thought, well that’s great. That’s absolutely brilliant.”
Walsh added that taking on The Larkins was “a bit of a no-brainer”, adding that he “really enjoyed making” the ITV drama.
“This is a very warm, nostalgic show. The other side are doing sort of nostalgic shows so why not do one now and it’s worked perfectly.”
Walsh is set to star alongside Joanna Scanlan (Ma) in The Larkins, with Tok Stephen (Charley), Sabrina Bartlett (Mariette) and Barney Walsh (PC Harness) also part of the cast.