Joanna Lumley. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA WireJoanna Lumley. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley will play the Queen in a TV version of David Walliams’s bestselling children’s book Gangsta Granny.

She is joined in the cast for the hour-long programme by Miranda Hart, Rob Brydon, Julia McKenzie and Walliams himself.

Miss Marple star McKenzie plays the dull pensioner with a secret past as a jewel thief who gets her grandson, played by Reece Buttery, tangled up in one last heist, with Walliams and Hart playing his ballroom dancing-obsessed parents.

Walliams said: “I am thrilled that we have such a stellar cast of comedy legends for Gangsta Granny.

“I can only apologise that I am in it too.”

The show is set for broadcast at Christmas.

Gangsta Granny was Walliams’s fourth children’s book. First published in 2011 it has sold almost half a million copies.

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