Brenda Blethyn has revealed that the new series of Kate & Koji will be recorded later this year.
The sitcom, which stars the BAFTA winner as a cafe owner who strikes up a friendship with an asylum-seeking doctor, peaked with over 6 million viewers when it aired during the first lockdown last year.
ITV ordered a second series in June 2020 and although filming was due to start in January, ongoing coronavirus restrictions led to it being postponed.
"We were all geared up to do another series," Blethyn explained. "I finished Vera just before Christmas 2020 and they had already started some of the outside broadcast filming.
"I was due to start Kate and Koji in the studio in January 2021. But there were too many challenges. You couldn't have a studio audience.
"I'm playing a character who is serving tea and sandwiches all day long, and because of COVID protocol, I wouldn't have been able to pass anything to anyone else. And of course, we had to stay two metres apart.
"So, the producer has delayed it until after I've finished work on Vera later this year."
Blethyn returns for two new feature-length episodes of Vera starting Sunday at 8pm on ITV.
Neil Wilkes
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