Martin Freeman is heading back to the London stage to star in the world premiere of a new play about the Labour Party.

He’ll be joined in Labour of Love by recent BAFTA-winner Sarah Lancashire.

The play, by James Graham, is described as a laugh-out-loud comedy, set in north Nottinghamshire, in a post-industrial former mining town with a working class community.

Lancashire will play Jean Whittaker, a constituency agent more aligned to Labour’s traditional wing, while Freeman will play David Lyons, the district’s modernising MP.

A quarter of the seats at each performance will be on sale for £10. That’s 20,000 over the play’s 11-week run at the Noel Coward Theatre, from September 15 through to December 2.

Labour of Love is Lancashire’s first stage role in six years, she last starred in musical Berry Blue Eyes. Freeman was last seen in Richard III.