AN UP and coming Cookham Dean comedian has landed a prime role in a new Channel 4 sitcom.

Tom Rosenthal, 22, son of television sports presenter Jim Rosenthal, will appear in Friday Night Dinner, which has been created by Peep Show producer Robert Popper.

He will star alongside Inbetweeners comic Simon Bird and Green Wing¹s Tamsin Greig.

Tom, a Chortle Student Comedy Award finalist, and Simon will play twentysomething brothers who go round to their parents' house for a traditional Jewish Friday night dinner.

A pilot was shot for E4, but not yet aired.

Now the family comedy has now been picked up for a full Channel 4 series.

It will begin filming in September and screen in March 2011.

Tom said: “I'm very excited about it all, I feel a very lucky chap. I would hope to continue doing both the acting and comedy but I would love to see how far I can take the acting.”

Tom's mother Chrissy Rosenthal, a former Newsnight producer, said she was proud.

“It's sensational, to get this chance right at the beginning of his career is extraordinary. He's a laugh to live with.”

She said it was particularly impressive considering he had only recently taken up acting.

Chrissy, a former Newsnight presenter revealed she and husband Jim have trodden the boards in the past for amateur dramatics groups.

Mr Popper, co-creator of BBC Two's Look Around You and author of the best-selling The Timewaster Letters, said: “I want the show to capture the way we all revert to being kids again when we go round to our parents.

“But it's also pretty autobiographical, it features a dad who drinks ketchup straight from the bottle, just like mine.”

Steve Bendelack, who worked on The Royle Family and The League of Gentlemen will be directing the show, made by Big Talk Productions and Popper Pictures.