La Veuve
A 6 x 30’ sitcom by
David Walter Hall, Roxana Rae and Kieran Mortell
Logline
Two co-dependent siblings from Yeovil find themselves running a crumbling French chateau for an eccentric English widow, and quickly become entangled in her chaotic world.
Pictured: Co-creators Kieran Mortell and Roxana Rae as Becky and Ben
Characters
Becky and Ben
They may be unworldly, dysfunctional, a little vain and very much set in their ways, but the two siblings at the heart of this story are blessed with the ability to see good in almost anything, even as they receive the worst from the people around them. Their kindness and willingness to help is what gets them into the most trouble.
Becky has recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend, seen in the show’s opening scene. The couple had planned a working holiday in France for the summer, and Ben, feeling pressured to help his sister in a crisis, rashly decides to come on the trip instead.
Becky is prone to obsessions: staying up late defending James Corden from his internet detractors, or endlessly analysing her ex’s stolen dream diary for traces of meaning. Ben tries to be the pragmatist and problem solver, but his solutions rarely live up to his own faith in them. He is dotingly protective of his little sister, and anxiously jealous of anyone else giving her their attention.
They will also be curiously and sometimes inappropriately intimate with each other, something which will be played for both comic and dramatic effect.
Becky and Ben could be played by the show’s co-creators Roxana Rae and Kieran Mortell.
Evangeline AKA "La Veuve"
With her very wealthy French husband recently dead, leaving her his chateau, the locals come to refer to Evangeline as “the Widow” (la Veuve), as she appears so permanently afflicted by grief that she is unable to achieve anything practical without relying on someone else’s begrudging assistance.
Aged in her early seventies, Evangeline is childish, flirtatious, privileged, erratic, sometimes condescending but always fun.
Actors to play Evangeline might include Alison Steadman, Imogen Stubbs (with whom writer David Walter Hall previously worked on the play North of the Sunset) or Imelda Staunton.
The Rest
Shane, Becky’s ex
Henri, the local mayor
Helga, mistress to Evangeline’s late husband
Hendrik and Elise, Evangeline’s uptight Dutch neighbours
Clarence, an oddball friend of Evangeline’s
Simon, Evangeline’s stockbroker son
Background
Origins
Kieran and Roxy met while performing in Peaky Blinders: The Rise, an immersive theatre show in London’s Camden Market. Both from the West Country and seeing that they could pass for brother and sister, they created the characters of Becky and Ben for a short mockumentary sketch, in which they played wedding planners relocating to London from the sticks. They asked director David Walter Hall to film the sketch.
Initially intended to provide the actors with showreel material, the three felt that the siblings’ journey ought not to end there, and so they began work on La Veuve, a sitcom relocating the siblings to the South of France, and immersing them in an eccentric and wealthy ex-pat community for which they are very much unprepared.
Tone and Influences
There are inevitable parallels with recent sitcoms featuring hapless siblings such as This Country and Stath Lets Flats. La Veuve will share their just-about-real-world setting, and all-too-real awkward family dynamics.
In its eccentric take on small town life, La Veuve might also draw comparisons with French favourite Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks). The southern French setting will visually recall films such as Stephen Warbeck’s The Man in the Hat, the classic Jean de Florette and David Walter Hall’s own Passing Through.
The Divine Comedy’s song A Lady of a Certain Age tells the story of a woman very like Evangeline, who “chased the sun around the Cote d’Azur / Until the light of youth became obscured,” and would make a perfect closing-credits theme song for the show.
Episodes
Episode 1
Becky is dumped by her boyfriend while on shift at the hotel where she and her brother both work. In a panic, Ben agrees to come with her on the working holiday she and her ex had planned at a French hotel. When they arrive, the hotel is closed. Evangeline finds them looking lost and gives them a lift, but she may have an ulterior motive, as they unwittingly become guests of honour at her husband’s funeral.
The screenplay for the pilot episode is available now.
Episode 2
Becky and Ben are tasked with renovating the gatehouse, which has been offered to them as accommodation while Evangeline lives in the flat on the chateau’s upper floor. (The downstairs will one day be offered to guests.) They have to deal with local shops and DIY stores.
Episode 3
Becky is introduced to the concept of “love languages” and embarks on a quasi-shamanic quest across the countryside when she is unable to immediately identify her own, introducing a surreal note, and the chance to meet many local characters.
Meanwhile Ben and Evangeline prepare for her to host a dinner party. The guests include the local mayor and a psychic with whom he is having an affair.
Episode 4
Evangeline’s hard-nosed son arrives. He doesn’t spend a lot of time with his mum, only about as much as he can take. He’s used to being exasperated by her, but he’s completely unable to comprehend the siblings, who are on another level. He begins to suspect they are attempting to scam his mother by pretending to be simpletons. He eaves drops on their conversations, and is baffled to realise they are the real deal.
Episode 5
The chateau’s first guests arrive in two parties: a yoga retreat and a delegation from the Vatican who are there to assess the (tenuous) arguments for the canonization of a local woman. Becky and Ben must protect the priests from angry locals and the yoga party from the curious priests.
Episode 6
The chateau is soon to open to the general public. Becky and Ben’s work is done. A band has been booked, but cancels last minute. Becky and Ben are forced to hire the best alternative they can find at short notice, a once-famous alcoholic crooner from the sixties, found propping up a local bar. He is a disaster, giving much too honest critiques of the artworks and being sexually inappropriate. Becky and Ben are forced to take over the singing, which is unexpectedly joyous.
Booked to fly back to Yeovil the next morning, Becky and Ben sit drinking leftover wine with Evangeline, seated around her husband’s grave at the foot of the garden. They decide they might stay a little longer…
Series Arcs
While the individual episodes will place the characters in awkward and absurd comic scenarios, deeper dramatic threads will run through the series.
As Ben coaches his sister through the fallout from her recent breakup, their relationship will strengthen, even as they confront the awkwardness of admitting their jealousy for each other’s friends and partners – dark territory with both comic and tragic potential. Evangeline will warm to the siblings, opening up about her grief, which is more real than people imagine, and the regrets she feels when she reflects on her hedonistic globe-trotting past, not least the resentment she experiences from her adult son.
Creative Team
David Walter Hall
writer and director
Dave read Philosophy at Cambridge University, where he wrote and directed his first plays.
His first feature, the multi-award-winning Passing Through, was released on Prime Video in 2025. A dark family drama with a few comic moments, Passing Through shares a setting with La Veuve, among English-speaking ex-pats in the South of France, an area where he has spent a lot of time working and ingratiating himself with the locals.
Roxana Rae
writer and actor
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Kieran Mortell
writer and actor
Kieran trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Acting credits include Rupert in Small Prophets (BBC), Milos Warren in The Ark – Season 2 (Peacock / Sky), Justin in I Was Honey Boo Boo (Biopic) as well as a host of West-End and international touring theatre credits.
Writing includes A Christmas Carol (Parabola Arts Centre) and Dick Whittington (Cheltenham Playhouse).
Kieran is also a director, directing many theatre productions and as a senior performance director with Immersive Octopus.
Get in Touch
If you want to join us on the journey to make La Veuve a reality, or just want to know more about the project, email dave@davidwalterhall.com.
