Abigail Wilson

Ruby Speaking review

Superb show is cut off in its stride with six-episode run that leaves you wanting more.

After last week's entertaining offering from Inbetweeners boys Simon Bird and Joe Thomas, we have this less successful pilot written by Jam And Jerusalem co-writer Abigail Wilson. Three school friends - a breastfeeding mum, a bohemian type and a down-on-her-luck TV presenter - meet on a monthly basis to see fourth friend Lucy, who is in a coma. It's more upbeat than it sounds and, as Lucy becomes more aware of her surroundings, we get whimsical glimpses into her subconscious. But the performances are way better than the pedestrian script deserves.

Anyway, "I blame Princess Diana" said Jam & Jerusalem's quintessentially stiff-lipped Caroline (Jennifer Saunders) while talking about the prevailing mood of dreadful wetness and soppiness during last Sunday's excruciating dinner party, which was also attended by Dawn French's lady-who-doesn't, Rosie, and kindly Sal (Sue Johnston), thus turning it into a kind of oestrogen-drenched comedy masterclass, albeit writ rather small and bittersweet, rather as if Jennifer (with co-writer Abigail Wilson) has finally got all that relentless comedy shouting out of her system, and grown up.

Anyway, Caroline was so constipated by her class that she referred to her son, fighting in "the Helmand", as if he was killing time by doing something slightly irksome like pulling up weeds on the drive or putting the rubbish out. Caroline's lip was, obviously, only allowed to tremble when she assumed no one else could see it.

I don't know - perhaps this scene was all the more touching for being aired the day after the announcement of the 200th military death in Afghanistan, but actually I disagree with Caroline; let's not blame Princess Diana for becoming a nation of soppy emotional incontinents; instead let's blame her former sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York instead.