North Herts is proving to be fertile ground for the BBC this autumn with two TV series based or filmed in the region.

The Comet: Emma Kennedy's book The Tent, The Bucket and Me will appear as The Kennedys on BBC One next monthEmma Kennedy's book The Tent, The Bucket and Me will appear as The Kennedys on BBC One next month (Image: Archant)

BBC One’s five part drama Dr Foster, starring Suranne Jones, is set in the fictional town of Parminster but Hitchin was used for many locations.

It will screen its second episode tonight at 9pm – and next month a new family comedy based in Stevenage, called The Kennedys, will arrive on our screens.

Loosely based on Emma Kennedy’s bestselling book The Tent, The Bucket and Me, the six part series will also be shown on BBC One.

Emma, a former Celebrity Masterchef winner as well as being a seasoned comedy writer and performer, told the Comet this week: “It’s not a straight adaptation because I don’t think it would have worked.

“There are ten chapters in the book and all of them are about holidays, so we changed the name to The Kennedys and decided to make the series about my family’s life on the council estate I grew up on.

“What the programme is for me is a love letter to social housing – when it used to work.

“In the 1960s and 70s council housing, and council estates, were properly aspirational – home to tough, hard-working families who looked to better themselves.

“I lived in council housing in Stevenage. I went to Roebuck Primary School and Nursery in Broadwater. I also went to Whitehill Junior School in Hitchin, and Hitchin Girls’ School.

“If you were a young family from London, or a big city, and you got social housing in a ‘new town’ you were overjoyed.

“The estate I lived in was a perfect place for me when I was growing up. Everyone looked out for each other. There was a real sense of community.

“As a kid you had so many other youngsters to play out with. It was brilliant. It was tough at times, but I had such fun.

“It was also fun to film The Kennedys. We were in a studio for four weeks, then went out on location to a caravan park in Wales.

“In the last episode there was a terrible storm, but in reality it was so hot I got a suntan. We had to take our own wind and rain machine – when there was actually a heatwave going on. The actors truly suffered!”