Caroline Quentin

Four modern young witches share a house in Camden, north London in this new supernatural comedy-drama. Former EastEnder Lacey Turner stars and Caroline Quentin plays one of the witches' overprotective mums. They struggle to juggle their advertising/physiotherapy careers with being both magic and beautiful. Of course, the Camden witches have a feud going with some posh ones from west London. It's not at all sophisticated or layered in a Buffy way but decent fluff nevertheless.

Switch features four chums (Lacey Turner, Hannah Tointon, Nina Toussaint-White and Phoebe Fox) who with a bucket and a seemingly endless supply of feathers can turn back time, resurrect the dead (well, a cat) and use witchcraft to sort out their romantic lives. From the writers of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, it's sort of an anglicised Charmed.

Invariably, the spells don't quite work, and the hoops the girls go through to get out of trouble form the heart of the drama. It's all a little breathless - Caroline Quentin plays it larger than life as an über-earth mothery witch - and the London Borough of Camden must be overjoyed at the free publicity. But the episode ends with a neat touch of acid to temper the jollity.

Switch interview: Caroline Quentin

Caroline Quentin features in a couple of episodes of Switch as the hippy mother of one of the witches, who is a bit handy with magic herself. We spoke to her on-set earlier in the year.

A strong cast doesn't conceal the fact that, on the evidence of the opening two episodes, this new comedy scripted by Holly Walsh and the usually reliable Sharon Horgan (above) needs to be funnier and darker. Horgan plays Helen, wrongly sent to prison for killing her boss. Nobody on the outside, including her hopeless lawyer (Geoff McGivern), seems able to help, while inside she has to contend with the malevolent governor (Jennifer Saunders). Future episodes promise star appearances by Caroline Quentin and Miranda Richardson.

Caroline Quentin wants Men Behaving Badly to return

Caroline Quentin has not ruled out a return of the hit comedy Men Behaving Badly.

Portrait of the artist: Caroline Quentin, actor

'I could name on one hand the things I've done that are OK. The rest are rubbish.'

This much I know: Caroline Quentin

The 51-year-old actor on big hands and working-mum roles.

Have you watched the sitcom Life Of Riley on BBC1? Seriously, have you watched an entire episode? tvBite has. It's got Caroline Quentin at her most patronising, the new Barnaby from Midsomer displaying the comedic personality of a funeral, and some stage school kids. Now it might not sound very good, but it's actually much worse than that. It's an achievement of sorts, but it is somehow worse than the sum of its appalling parts. And it is now on its third series.