Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Can You Keep A Secret?’ On Paramount+, Where A Son Has To Deal With His Parents’ Poorly-Planned Scheme To Collect On Life Insurance
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Can You Keep A Secret?
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The new Paramount+/BBC comedy Can You Keep A Secret? proves that insurance fraud can be a funny subject to explore. It helps that the people committing the fraud aren’t career criminals, they’re taking advantage of a clerical mistake and — the funniest part — they have no idea what they’re doing.
Opening Shot: A small town in England, as we see a small, isolated house, we then cut to a woman power-walking towards her front door, while wearing Ugg boots.
The Gist: Debbie Fendon (Dawn French) makes sure to tell her son Harry (Craig Roberts) about the plastic bag covering one of his car windows. He’s there to bring the tree that they’re going to plant to celebrate the memory of his father William (Mark Heap), who died two months prior. In the meantime Harry fields a call from his wife Neha (Mandip Gill), who talks about a local elderly man called “Pigfish” (Gregory Gudgeon) who goes around putting petrol pump nozzles up his bum.
Harry has been wondering why his mother has been so upbeat in the wake of her husband’s death, and then wonders why she has a tote bag full of cash in a kitchen cupboard. The cash is from William’s life insurance settlement (she’s not a fan of banks), about £250,000, and she gives him a £10,000 stack of bills. Then she lets him in on a little secret: She goes upstairs to the loft space, and brings William down with her.
Yes, William is still alive. Turns out that one night he screwed up when taking his Parkinson’s meds, and Debbie found that he wasn’t breathing. The local NHS physician, who has developed health anxiety since COVID, barely touched William and ended up declaring him dead. After the doctor left, though, William woke up like nothing happened. But, since a death certificate was issued, and the funeral home connected William with the body of a man whose paperwork they misplaced, Debbie and William decided to take advantage of it and cash out his life insurance policy.
Now they’ve clued Harry in, though, they don’t want him telling anyone, including Neha. Of course, Harry is upset that he was led to believe his dad was dead for two months, and he also thinks that this plan is only going to lead to the two of them going to prison on fraud charges.
As it is, it seems like the way William stays hidden isn’t well thought-out, as the two of them spend time in the kitchen cupboard when Debbie’s friends Billie (Shola Adewusi) and Jean (Heather Seymour) come over. William starts to think about needing to go to the loo, and when that train leaves the station, it’s not coming back, as Harry finds out while sitting next to him.
Photo: Alistair Heap/Big Talk Studios/BBC/Paramount+
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Simon Mayhew-Archer, Can You Keep A Secret? has a similar energy to Such Brave Girls, a show for which Mayhew-Archer was a writer and EP.
Our Take: The crux of Can You Keep A Secret? is that Debbie is the ringleader of this “heist”, and we all know that she and William are not the heist type. The entire first season of the series is going to consist of Harry trying to keep his parents from making mistakes that will get them found out, as well as weighing whether he should let his police officer wife in on this scheme.
It’s certainly a funny premise to explore, and the first episode manages to hit on themes of governmental incompetence and the idea of “doing everything right” doesn’t necessarily pay off while also generating some big laughs. The laughs absolutely come from not only Harry’s exasperation with the plan but the fact that he knows they won’t be able to pull it off.
Mayhew-Archer also wants to add some quirky locals into the mix, like Pickfish and Debbie’s narcoleptic friend Billie. Those locals will add some funny quirkiness as they weave in and out of the story. All the while, Debbie and Harry are going to try to keep the secret from everyone, even though William’s general goofiness makes it hard.
We’d also like to see more of an examination of Harry’s relationship with his parents. When William sneaks into the back of Harry’s car to talk to him before he leaves, he expresses happiness that he gets to talk to his son again. We get the feeling that there’s a closeness there that’s going to be tested by this scheme. We’re not asking for the show to get emotional, but some of this will be helpful to keep the humor character-driven.
Photo: Alistair Heap/Big Talk Studios/Mayhay Studios/CBS Studios, Inc. 2025
Performance Worth Watching: Dawn French’s Debbie is not only hilarious, but her “fake it ’till you make it” confidence makes her character fun to watch.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: As Harry, Debbie and Neha admire the tree planted in William’s name in the park, William is lounging at home eating biscuits, when an envelope is pushed through the mail slot; it says “fao WILLIAM” in cut-out letters. Someone knows what’s going on.
Sleeper Star: Mandip Gill’s Neha is in the unenviable position of being in the middle of this mess while still trying to be an honest cop. You know that Harry is going to let her in on this secret eventually, right?
Most Pilot-y Line: Debbie and William have neighbors. What happens if one of them catches a view of William through the window of his living room or kitchen?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Can You Keep A Secret? is a funny show about a family who tries to get something they think they deserve, without much of an idea of how their plan will play out.
How To Watch Can You Keep A Secret?
Paramount+ offers two subscription plans, Essential and Premium. The ad-supported Essential plan costs $8.99/month, while the ad-free Premium plan (which comes with Showtime titles and live CBS) costs $13.99/month.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
