Amanda Abbington

This excruciating six-part "romantic comedy drama" lurches from the self-consciously contrived to the hideously mawkish. It revolves around three couples of the sort who only ever appear in bad television dramas. One couple (Amanda Abbington and Dean Lennox Kelly) is unhappily married because the husband is loveable but feckless. Another pair (Lucy Davis and Shaun Dooley) have been in love for ever, but she won't marry him because of what she sees every day at her work in a women's refuge. And the third couple is a smooth advertising type and his model girlfriend (Ralf Little and Miranda Raison). The actors have all been chosen because of their abundance of charm, but nothing they can do will redeem this facile rubbish.

There are strong echoes of Cold Feet in this sharply observed six-part romantic comedy - not least because you'd have to look back at least that far to think of an ITV1 comedy that had a more assured, satisfying and generally winning opening episode. The story follows the Cold Feet formula of tracking three couples in and out of their relationships. Tonight's main focus is on childhood sweethearts Lillie and Eddie (Lucy Davis and Shaun Dooley), who despite having two kids and a 16-year relationship, haven't yet done marriage. Not for want of trying by sensitive paramedic Eddie, who proposes every year on Lillie's birthday, only to get just as regularly knocked back. It's a cycle that their doe-eyed 11-year-old Joe (Jack Scanlon) is determined to do something about. If that sounds sweeter than a sugar sandwich, it certainly is in parts, but like much of Married Single Other, it's saved by a good cast. Amanda Abbington is particularly good as Babs, whose frustration with her feckless husband Dickie (Dean Lennox Kelly) threatens to kill a loving marriage, while Ralf Little makes a convincing serial love-rat turned monogamous puppy-dog when he falls for model Abbey (Miranda Raison). It's no mean achievement to flesh out so many characters in a single episode, while also provoking occasional belly laughs and plenty of smiles. Let's hope the quality is sustainable; as it is, this could run and run.