Coronation Street writer Chris, from Codsall, talks new series Home From Home starring Johnny Vegas and Elaine Paige

And now Staffordshire father-of-three Chris Fewtrell has branched out to co-writing his very own series, starring comedy icon Johnny Vegas and West End legend Elaine Paige.

The new comedy show, entitled Home From Home, starts this Friday at 9.30pm on BBC One.

See the trailer for the show here:

It tells the tale of working class family man Neil Hackett, played by Johnny, who has finally achieved a life-long dream of buying a lodge in the Lake District with his wife Fiona, played by Niky Wardley.

Neil is delighted with his buy at Lake View Holiday Park until he meets the neighbours Robert Dillon, portrayed by Doctor Foster's Adam James, and his wife Penny, played by Emilia Fox from Silent Witness.

Elaine Paige plays the part of Neil's fun-loving mum Mercy Hackett.

"Neil sabotages his dreams. The guy across the way seems effortlessly superior. For him, it all seems to go right," said Chris, who lives in Codsall.

"But the real tragedy is that if Neil looked at what he has, he’d realise how rich he actually is.

"He has great kids, a loving wife… If he could just stop obsessing over others, he’d have a great time.

"Home From Home is a show for any dad who has felt like he is falling short - especially in comparison to any other dads.

"There’s a touch of National Lampoon thrown in there, in so much as there’s this dad who is desperate for everything to go right and for his family to have a good time. But reality always rains on his parade. And that’s what family life is like.

"That’s what inspired the title too. When Neil packs things into his car, he doesn’t just leave his worries at home - he takes it all with him; they just come out in different ways."

Chris, aged 48, who has worked on titles including The Bill, Byker Grove, Peak Practice, and Rosemary and Thyme, says that while it may sound like a 'cliché', the whole Home From Home cast was a 'absolutely fantastic' to work with - particularly Merseyside-born comic Johnny.

"He’s the nicest, most genuine, warmest guy you’ll ever meet," added Chris.

"After a while, following the pilot, we actually tried to tailor the character of Neil to Johnny.

"No one does frustration and righteous anarchy like he does.

"Neil will be patient to a degree, but when he goes - or thinks he’s being slighted - he goes to the extremes that no normal person would. Comedically speaking, we looked at characters like Basil Fawtly for example; someone who beats their car with a tree branch. We were looking at characters with no safety gauge.

"Johnny’s an enormously popular guy. We really couldn’t have asked for a better person to play the central character.

"The rest of the cast was really great too.

"Emilia Fox was very good as the snob and former good-time girl.

"Elaine Paige… When we were told she was being cast, Simon and I thought ‘that’s brilliant - she’s an international star’. But we did wonder if she’d be difficult to work with.

"And she’s about as far from ‘diva’ as you could possibly get. She completely mucked in and was open to to any suggestions or direction. And she gave a tremendous performance."

Chris first began writing scripts for a school-based drama group when he was 13 while a pupil in Rednall, south Birmingham, inspired by 'a wonderful' English and drama teacher at Colmers Farm Comprehensive.

This continued through to university, when he attended Oxford's Queen's College where he studied a degree in history.

"I didn’t write for the drama groups there. As a lad from a council estate in Birmingham, I found the theatre types there to be a bit intimidating, so I’d send out my work to television companies," explained Chris.

"Granada picked up a project of mine and, though it never turned into anything, at the age of 21, that was my first experience of paid TV work.

"As a result of that, I got work on a few episodes of a show called The House of Windsor, though it didn’t do very well because it was controversial, as it was about the royal family. It had some big names in it though and starred Leslie Phillips.

"But the jobs were few and far between, so I became a journalist and started work on the Dorset Evening Echo in Weymouth and with The BBC after being on their journalist training scheme. I then worked on Radio 4 and 5 for a while.

"At the age of 25 I decided I wanted to write full time.

"I did a couple of episodes of Eastenders in between, but I wasn’t earning enough money to support myself; especially as I was living in London.

"So I had a go at writing full time and got a job on a football-based soap called Dream Team on Sky One. And I’ve been working in the business ever since."

Chris began working for Coronation Street in 2004 and has since written around 250 episodes for the ITV soap.

"The best known episode I’ve written was the one around the death of Hayley Cropper. That was a great privilege and honour," said Chris.

"I also worked on one of the episodes where there was a fire at The Rovers Return Inn.

"One of my favourite episodes I’ve ever worked on was one I did early on. It was about Schmeichel the great dane, who jumped into Les Battersby and Cilla Brown’s hot tub with them in it. It then fell through the ceiling and into the lounge."

Home From Home will run for six episodes from Friday.

"I just hope people tune in. I think over the course of the series the show gets stronger, the more you get to know the characters," he added.

"It’s a funny show. And the more people that watch it, the more chance we have of it being recommissioned, which is what we desperately want."