Vegas stars as drug dealer in new show

Johnny Vegas is to star as a drug dealer in a new BBC sitcom.

The funnyman plays Moz, a character who sells marijuana from his Manchester bedsit.

The sitcom, I Deal, has been made for BBC3 by Steve Coogan’s production company Baby Cow.

Like The Royle Family, the entire show is filmed in Moz’s flat. There are regular comings and goings from his best friend Kuldip and his main supplier PC - who turns out to be a police constable.

Vegas joked: “When they said I was playing a dealer, I thought it was a Lovejoy type show for the new generation, and that ‘dope’ was hip-hop for ‘lovely Elizabethan table’.”

A spokesman for the show said: “Although Moz’s chosen profession is a dubious one he is a man of principles.

“He deals only in the many varieties of marijuana and sees himself as providing a crucial service to the local community.”

The show is the first to be commissioned by the BBC’s Manchester-based Comedy Unit and all the actors will be drawn from the north of England.

Made by the team behind dark comedy Nighty Night, I Deal will be broadcast on BBC3 later in the year before transferring to BBC2.