Anna Gilthorpe

The Gemma Factor is a new sitcom about an aspiring actress/model/presenter whose irrepressible optimism remains undiminished despite the combined drawbacks of her having no discernible talents whatsoever, living in a small Yorkshire village where the nearest bright lights are Halifax, and signing with an agent who has a criminal conviction for sex trafficking.

Given its showbusiness theme, The Gemma Factor automatically loses points for its total absence of any verbal or visual references to The Stage newspaper. Hopefully this appalling omission will be rectified in future episodes.

Apart from that, The Gemma Factor was great - funny, fresh and charming. The last of these attributes is almost impossible to pull off, so congratulations to all involved.

What makes The Gemma Factor's achievements all the more remarkable is how perilously close it skates to the potentially appalling. If the show's comedy calibrations were just a few degrees out Gemma's personality would be irritating and imbecilic rather than sweet and naive, with her friends and family coming over as clumsy cliches, not cuddly and colourful. As it is I was totally seduced, even without the picture postcard shots of West Yorkshire at its sunniest and greenest.

Some of the gags do strain to be funny, and the simpleton policeman is a caricature too many, but otherwise Tony Pitts' script is spot-on. And in Anna Gilthorpe the show has found an authentic star to play the delusional wannabe of the title.

On Tuesday night, BBC Three aired the first episode of the six-part series The Gemma Factor. About a 20-year-old from a small Yorkshire village who desperately dreams of being famous for being famous, I expected it to be dripping with irony. The subject matter, after all, is ripe for some very easy satirical pickings. It's opening sequence, of Gemma skipping through the dreary village, spreading colour wherever she goes while singing a feelgood song seemed to be an ironic counterbalance to the cynical black comedy that I thought must surely follow. But, no. It's like that all the way through, positive to the point of nausea, crammed with lazy, stereotypical characters and without a single funny line.

There are rare glimpses at an attempt at satire, such as when Gemma wonders what the point of privacy is, but they fail to hit the target, and characters who try to make Gemma look at things in a more rational way, such as her friend Nell, are sidelined. Gwyneth Powell (Mrs McCluskey from Grange Hill) does put in a good turn as Gemma's Nan, Anna Gilthorpe's portrayal of ditsy Gemma is so sweet and full of optimism that it feels cruel to criticise the programme, and yes, of course there's a place for upbeat, jovial comedy. The problem is that it feels like a Children's BBC sitcom with knob gags, although that is perhaps being a little unkind to Big Cook and Little Cook. Who exactly was this aimed at? And what is the point it's trying to make? If it is, as I suspect, attempting to satirise the current obsession with fame and celebrity at the expense of talent, then it fails entirely. This is probably the first and last time I'll say the following sentence: Leigh Francis does it much, much better.

Gemma Collinge is 20 years and 10 months old and hell-bent on being famous by the time she's 21. What she's going to be famous for she hasn't figured out yet, although you can already imagine Anna Gilthorpe, who plays her, wobbling gamely about in next year's Dancing On Ice.

This gentle sitcom has a lot in common with BBC2's Beautiful People - not least because Gemma's best friend Jeff is a screamingly gay window dresser. It also helps that the small town in this case is the postcard-worthy West Yorkshire town of Lumb - it's the kind of place many of us dream of escaping to, rather than from.

Claire King from Emmerdale is Jeff's mum and Emma's Nana is played by Gwyneth Powell - aka Grange Hill's Mrs McCluskey.

Like Gemma herself, this is too fluffy, blonde and obvious to qualify as biting satire but to slate it would be like kicking a puppy.

A new BBC3 sitcom set the beautiful scenery of West Yorkshire, but with the sort of scatological and sexual references that are seemingly compulsory for a BBC3 comedy commission these days. The odd combination does make this seem like some form of Two Pints of Summer Wine, but writer Tony Pitts (who also appears as a cafe owner with OCD) has crafted a fluffy view of Gemma (Anna Gilthorpe), a girl whose desperation to become famous leads her to make some bad career choices, including hooking up with a crooked agent (Angus Barnett).

Gilthorpe is charming as the ditzy wannabe and manages to make the cast of extreme caricatures around her more tolerable. Standing out in the cast, though, are Gwyneth Powell (aka Grange Hill's legendary Mrs McCluskey) as Gemma's Nan and Emma Kearney as Janet, Kenny's scheming wife/assistant.

Interview with Anna Gilthorpe

The star of The Gemma Factor, Anna Gilthorpe, speaks about Gemma, fame and dressing up as a banana among other things...

This new comedy series will not set the world alight, but Anna Gilthorpe, the comparative newcomer in the title role, could well anticipate a bright future. As it happens, she plays an aspiring actor (model, whatever) who is desperate to find fame and swap her dowdy Yorkshire village for the glamour of London. A pert personification of wannabe naivety, Gemma skips off on the road to stardom by signing up with a suspiciously willing showbiz agent.

There's an undeniable charm about The Gemma Factor's kooky protagonist, played by Anna Gilthorpe.