Frasier's sketches out UK job

When your last job was as the bestpaid actor in US TV, where can you possibly go next?

For Kelsey Grammer, $1.6 million-per-episode star of Frasier, the answer is London. The comedy actor is to follow up his success in the sitcom with a new TV show filmed in the capital. And he has taken the formula from ITV's own Bafta award-winning The Sketch Show.

Grammer is such a fan of the original series, which first screened in Britain in 2001, starring Ronni Ancona, that he has convinced America's Fox Broadcasting to screen a revised series - the first British comedy it has commissioned.

He will travel to Teddington Studios to film the six-part series. He will feature as the show's guest star, as well as its executive producer, in a format featuring an ensemble of actors engaged in quick-fire puns, gags and sketches.

Produced by Avalon, the Londonbased company responsible for the original The Sketch Show, the series will also star British comic Lee Mack alongside Sopranos actor Malcolm Barrett, Kaitlin Olson from HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 24's Mary Lynn Rajskub.

A TV insider said: "Kelsey loves the British show and has already filmed a pilot. Now he'll be over here in London to film his own version. It will probably be titled something like The Sketch Show starring Kelsey Grammer or Kelsey Grammer Presents. It's brilliant news for Avalon. To bag someone like Kelsey is a massive coup."