Bradley may well be perfick for Pop Larkin role, but is there really no-one else?

AM I alone in thinking the Bradley Walsh roadshow should take a break? The 61-year-old comedian is all over TV like a rash. Up pops a new quiz show and he’s almost guaranteed to be its host. Now he’s flexing his acting muscles again as Pop in the new ITV comedy drama series The Larkins.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Brad fan. He’s great at what he does – and he’s done a lot of it. He entertains me regularly on The Chase, which he’s hosted an astonishing 1,800-plus times.

He’s bright and funny, a natural for countless other quiz shows down the years, such as Keep It In The Family, Cash Trapped and Take Off.

The man can act as well. You don’t last for two years on Corrie, five on Law And Order: UK and three on Doctor Who just by being a big name.

I can’t say I’ve heard him sing but two successful albums are testament to his skill in that direction and if you’re looking to pair a famous dad with his son for a series of road trips combining daring feats like canal jumping and cliff diving, who better to front it?

I was not at all surprised to hear that he had been chosen to host a reincarnation of Blankety Blank, first fronted more than 40 years ago by Terry Wogan, though forever linked in most minds by the inimitable Les Dawson.

But you can have too much of a good thing and when it comes to a remake of the classic H E Bates stories that began with The Darling Buds Of May, I’m left wondering if TV casting directors have no originality at all. Is there really no other ageing male actor who could portray Pop Larkin equally well, or perhaps even better?

Is there no latent talent waiting to bust on to our screens? A fresh face, with new ways, capable of doing justice to Pop Larkin, with his cigars and wad of fivers, his naughty teasing of genteel ladies, his lip-smacking kisses with Ma, making her “shake and laugh like a ripe jelly” so that everything’s just “perfick” in 50s rural England?

You can hardly blame Brad. If he’s offered a role that appeals, why wouldn’t he take it?

He does have £10 million in the bank, though, and is reported to earn almost £1 million a year, so he wouldn’t struggle too much if he missed out on the odd plum role. And wouldn’t it be nice if programme makers gave us a surprise occasionally? Introduced us to someone we might so take to our hearts that he, too, would go on to become a legend in his own lifetime? After all, Brad’s chase for fame and fortune will be over one day, and then who will they turn to?

Is there really no other ageing male actor who could portray Pop Larkin equally well, or perhaps even better?