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Did local celeb Les Vegas fake his own death? His daughter wants to know in star-studded new comedy Sandylands...

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Troubled business man les vegas has seen his wife, daughter and fortune disappear; now he’s about to do the same. In desperation, he slips on a lifejacket, hops on a pedalo and heads out to sea, vanishing without trace. The only clue to his disappearance is his unorthodox mode of transport, which is found covered in blood and bobbing about under a pier the following morning.

You may have gathered that this isn’t some edge-of-the-seat drama. It’s the laugh-a-minute three-part black comedy Sandylands, with a stellar cast including Hugh Bonneville, Sanjeev Bhaskar, David Walliams, Sophie Thompson and The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird.

Hugh’s character, The Oneeyed Man, is an insurance investigator, sent to the seaside resort of Sandylands to make absolutely sure that Les really is lost at sea, rather than trying his luck with a life insurance scam.

‘If anyone is going to verify the truth, it’ll be The One-eyed Man,’ says Hugh Bonneville, best known for playing the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey.

‘He’s been trained to leave no “i” undotted and no “t” uncrossed. Nothing escapes his notice and he prides himself on being a human lie detector. He’s faintly sinister and brings an air of administrative threat to his job.’

Also intrigued by Les’s disappearance are his neighbours, B&B owners Derek and Jeannie Swallows, played by David Walliams and Sophie Thompson. ‘They’re an oddball couple who offer accommodation to Les’s daughter Emily when she comes down from London for her father’s memorial, and they provide the food at the service,’ says David.

Viewers are gradually introduced to the eccentric collection of people who inhabit Sandylands, including nightclub owner and singer Terry Chino (Craig Parkinson, crooked ‘Dot’ Cottan in Line Of Duty), tour guide Tina Taylor (Scarborough’s Harriet Webb) and incompetent police officer Nathan Wild (Simon Bird).

Emily is the only one who plays it straight. She sets out to discover precisely what’s been

going on in Sandylands since she became estranged from her father. ‘We see flashbacks to her childhood when her mum walked out, and we see Emily in the present day finding unpaid bills in her dad’s office,’ explains Natalie Dew, who plays her.

Unforgotten star Sanjeev Bhaskar plays Les. He says his character was even out of his depth on land. ‘He never understood what his responsibilities were as a parent,’ says Sanjeev. ‘He didn’t appear to be doing an awful lot better as a businessman either. Les represented the faded grandeur of the place where he lived and worked – before he peddled off into the sunset...’