Kate & Koji is a British television sitcom produced by Hat Trick Productions for ITV, created and written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin.The series broadcast its inaugural episode on 18 March 2020. The first series consisted of six episodes and concluded on 22 April, with the programme being a critical and ratings success.The series follows Kate (Brenda Blethyn), a working-class café owner in neglected coastal resort Seagate in south Essex, who develops a strong friendship with regular customer Koji (Jimmy Akingbola), an asylum-seeking doctor
Plot
Kate (Brenda Blethyn) is a somewhat prickly, working-class woman who runs an old-fashioned café in neglected coastal resort Seagate in south Essex. She soon develops a strong but volatile friendship with regular customer Koji (Jimmy Akingbola). After grilling him on why he doesn't spend any money, he reveals that he doesn't work; although he is a doctor, he is also an asylum-seeker. After word gets out, Koji becomes the unofficial general practitioner and holds "surgery" in the café, ranking up custom for Kate, who offers him free food to keep the scheme going
Production
The seaside café for the TV sitcom was filmed at Frasiers Pie and Mash Shop in Herne Bay, standing in for the fictional seaside town of Seagate. The production also filmed exteriors of The Divers Arms pub and various scenes around the promenade and pier and an exterior scene at Herne Bay industrial estate. A further sequence was shot on the Promenade featuring a storm and its after effects.
Cast
- Brenda Blethyn as Kate Abbott, the owner of the cafe
- Jimmy Akingbola as Koji, an African asylum seeker doctor working in the cafe
- Blake Harrison as 'Medium' Dan, Kate's nephew who works as a decorator
- Barbara Flynn as Councillor Bone, a snobbish council member and Kate's nemesis
- Victor McGuire as Mr Mullholland, a regular at the cafe
- Rosalind Ayres as Iris, another regular at the cafe
- Gary Lammin as The Postman