Sue Perkins to create sitcom for BBC2

Comic and TV presenter Sue Perkins is to write a new sitcom for BBC Two, it has been announced.

The Great British Bake-Off host will also take the lead role in Heading Out, about a vet who is afraid to tell her parents she is a lesbian.

Dawn French will star opposite Perkins, along with The Thick of It's Jo Scanlan and Nicola Walker from Spooks.

The six-part series will begin production in September and is due to be broadcast next year.

According to the BBC, Perkins will play Sara, a skilled veterinarian whose friends insist she tell her parents about her sexual orientation.

To help her achieve this, her friends buy her a series of sessions with an eccentric lifestyle coach.

Executive producer Nicola Shindler said Perkins's script was a "fantastically original, smart and witty".

Perkins herself said the project had been "a joy to work on" and that she hoped that joy "proves to be infectious".

The 42-year-old has written for TV previously and is well known for her appearances on The News Quiz, Just a Minute and other radio shows.

Her television credits include Absolutely Fabulous, French and Saunders and Ronni Ancona and Co.