Catherine Tate and Philip Glenister among the all-star cast of Big School by David Walliams

The six-part comedy series will star Walliams as a 40-something chemistry teacher and take place in a madcap secondary school.

Tate will appear in the sitcom as Miss Postern, an enthusiastic French teacher who, despite her occupation, has never visited France.

Glenister, best known for playing DCI Gene Hunt in Life on Mars, will tackle the role of a lothario PE teacher called Mr Gunn, while Frances de la Tour – Miss Jones in Rising Damp – has signed up to play Greybridge School’s no-nonsense headmistress, Ms Baron.

The show’s cast will be rounded out by Getting On’s Joanna Scanlan, who is due to play Mrs Klebb, Greybridge’s nosy drama teacher, Black Mirror’s Daniel Rigby as a mod-like music teacher, and Steve Speirs from Extras, who’ll play pessimistic geography teacher Mr Barber.

“Led by David Walliams, it's an absolute privilege to work with such a brilliant cast and off screen production team,” said the BBC’s head of in-house comedy Mark Freeland. “Like my Latin GCSE, nothing can go wrong. At least that's what I thought at the time.”

Filming on Big School is scheduled to get under way in London during the course of the next few weeks.