Ben Miller (I)

This new sitcom often feels old-fashioned, but in a warm and pleasant way. You won't be knocked off your feet with hysterical laughter but we know not to expect anything wild on BBC1 at such a sensible hour. Ben Miller plays Murray, a middle-aged man who's frantically busy with his career. His wife, Bex, is dismayed by her workaholic husband. She doesn't sit back to enjoy the fruits of his labour, spending it all on Laboutins and fancy lunches. Instead, she sits alone at dinner tables and birthday celebrations, waiting for a husband who never appears as he's always delayed at work.

So Bex decides to leave him. But she does so on the day Murray finally realises his neglect and decides to throw her a surprise birthday party as a feeble gesture of atonement. Murray is already stressed by work, and is now frazzled further by clandestine party arrangements and by having to then pretend to the houseful of guests that his wife hasn't dumped him. Can he win her back by changing his ways? More importantly, is there enough charm and wit here to sustain six episodes?

Ben Miller interview

Surprisingly, Ben Miller, who plays Murray, admits that he based the character on himself!

Ben Miller interview

Funny man Ben Miller, 50, talks being stupid in real life (not true), living for comedy, and changing his name to Benji-Wenji...

When I hear the words "romantic comedy" I reach for my revolver. So it was with I Want My Wife Back, starring Ben Miller as the time-poor, emotion-rich Murray and Caroline Katz as the neglected-to-the-point-of-jacking-it-in wife Bex. It could easily have been gruesomely saccharine with canned laughter (unfathomably back in fashion) dubbed over to make up for lame dialogue and weak acting. But it really isn't as bad as that. Indeed it has a pleasingly unpredictable quality about the action that belies the promise of the series title.

Tellingly, I found myself ending the first episode with some faint interest in what happens next to the two protagonists. I know that's not such a ringing endorsement, but like Murray and Bex's marriage, the show shouldn't be written off just yet. Smell my cheese.

Ben Miller and Caroline Catz interview

Ben Miller and Caroline Catz talk about their new romantic comedy series.

Ben Miller: science has always been my inspiration

Science, complained Ben Miller a couple of years ago, remains in a ghetto, despite the public's keen appetite for it. The comedian and actor was referring to television scheduling: "Most TV execs are arts graduates," he said. "They hated science at school...I loved science."

Channel 4's commitment to cutting edge comedy continued with this satirical take on the campaign leading up to May's general election. Writers Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton employed the same technique they did during Drop the Dead Donkey and wrote some of the more topical jokes on the day that the episodes were filmed. This gave Ballot Monkeys a very relevant edge and what's more it was very funny to boot with special mention going to Ben Miller's frustrated Lib Dem supporter and Sarah Hadland's awful UKip member. Ultimately Ballot Monkeys wasn't just one of the funniest sitcoms of the year it was also one of the most inventive.