Julie Walters has been tempted back to acting by a "darkly funny" end of life drama and love story for Channel 4, British Comedy Guide can reveal.

Co-starring The Wire's Clarke Peters and also featuring Sue Johnston, Phil Davis and Peter Egan, the humorous Truelove features a core cast in their late 60s and 70s and has been written by Iain Weatherby (Humans), who created the series with Charlie Covell (The End Of The F***ing World).

Walters' last television starring role was in the 2016 Channel 4 drama National Treasure, in which she played the wife of a comedian, played by Robbie Coltrane, accused of sexual abuse.

Karl Johnson, Kiran Sonia Sawar and Fiona Button also appear in the six-episode Truelove, which promises "thrilling twists and turns, irreverent humour and passionate romance".

Acorn Antiques and dinnerladies star Walters plays Phil, an ex-senior police chief enjoying a comfortable if boring retirement, while Peters is Ken, a divorcee and ex-special forces vet who feels similarly at sea. Phil and Ken were teenage sweethearts and despite life having moved on, they have never quite managed to forget each other.

At a friend's funeral many years later they are reunited, along with a gang of old friends. At the wake, with nostalgia and booze flowing, talk soon takes a meditative turn and the group discuss what an "ideal" death might look like. Our gang make a drunken pact: rather than let each other suffer a slow and dreadful decline, they will step in and engineer a dignified death. In short, they will help each other die when the time is right. Because that, they all agree, is a sign of Truelove.

However, what starts out as a fanciful idea soon morphs into shocking reality...

"I had basically withdrawn from acting and wasn't sure that anything could tempt me back but then I read Truelove" said Walters. "I was completely bowled over by the writing - the dark humour, the love story and thriller element set against a backdrop of what happens to us all as we approach our later years.

"I adore the character of Phil - smart, funny and hard edged. How often does one have the chance at my tender age to play a leading lady in a TV drama? I can't wait to start and to work with Channel 4 again, a broadcaster with a remit that is so vital to the industry and viewers."

Peters added: "If your friend reached a soul-destroying level of decrepitude, could you help them transition, if asked? Would it be right, would it be noble, could you do it? Which of that internal triumvirate do you listen to: your head, heart or soul? You know it is illegal in law and scripture to take a life, but could you do it? 

"Iain and Charlie's scripts explore that moral dilemma in a way I've never seen before. It's funny, it's dark and it's full of twists and turns. And damn! To tell this story, with this cast, was something I would have dreaded missing out on... Roll on 'action'!"

The series, made by Clerkenwell Films (The End Of The F***ing World), pledges to wrestle with the knottiest of ethical questions out there - is it ever right to help end a life? But it does so with a lightness of touch that is both darkly funny and profoundly empathetic.

Fundamentally it is a show which focuses on a group of characters who are trying to take back control of their life in their twilight years.

And it's also a love story, as a long-extinguished romantic flame is rekindled between two characters who missed out on each other when they were younger, offering them a second chance to experience the love of their lives before time runs out.

"I'm so thrilled that we're making Truelove with and for Channel 4" said Covell. "I owe my career to the channel: from the 4Screenwriting course with Philip Shelley, to my first solo credit on Russell T Davies' Banana, to The End Of The F***ing World. Iain and I also got our first joint writing credit on C4, with Humans. It's a great privilege to be working with the channel again: I can't think of a more appropriate home for Truelove."

Elliot Hegarty (Cheaters, Ted Lasso) and Rachna Suri (Half Bad, Ackley Bridge) are directing Truelove and Alex Walsh-Taylor (Cheaters, Lovesick) is the producer.

The series has been commissioned by Channel 4's head of drama, Caroline Hollick and commissioning editor Rebecca Holdsworth. The executive producers for Clerkenwell Films are Emily Harrison, Andy Baker and Petra Fried, with Covell and Weatherby also executive producing. BBC Studios, which wholly owns Clerkenwell Films, is distributing the series internationally.

"Truelove is a unique, poignant and darkly funny series which deals with big themes around regrets at the paths not taken, quality of life and serious illness" said Hollick. "Beautifully written and with actors of the calibre of Julie Walters and Clarke Peters playing the leads, Truelove is an exciting addition to Channel 4's upcoming portfolio of dramas. I can't wait to see the series come to life."

Fried, joint managing director at Clerkenwell Films, added: "Iain and Charlie have created a truly special series full of emotion, edge-of-the-seat drama and pitch-black comedy. A story about a demographic that's rarely given centre stage on television, tackling the serious issues of love, life, illness and death, and handling them with warmth, sensitivity, humour and the youthful energy of a graphic novel.

"Producer Alex Walsh-Taylor and director Elliot Hegarty have assembled a brilliant team to make this and we couldn't be more excited to see Julie Walters, Clarke Peters and the rest of the incredible cast bring these iconic characters to life over the coming months."