Clive Tulloh

Home Time is another excellent Baby Cow comedy where the basis of the story is completely believable, and the narrative drags you in. It starts with a very obvious joke and, for a minute, you think that you are going to watch a BBC3 version of Sorry - but by the end you are completely drawn into this comic hell.

I am sure that if one of my best friends was a reincarnation of Badger from The Apprentice, I would have disappeared for 12 years, which is the premise for the series - what and where has Gaynor been since 1997 when she ran away on her 18th birthday?

Now 29, she's back, and I for one will be following her journey mainly because, like Gavin and Stacey, you completely care about the characters. It is written by, and stars, Emma Fryer, who plays Gaynor with a sensitivity and vulnerability that brings out the comedy brilliantly. First episodes are notoriously hard to do but the team behind Home Time have cracked it.

I didn't see any of the first series of How Not To Live Your Life, but given that this is the second series, it doesn't have any of the confidence of Home Time. Watching it you can imagine the original pitch: it's The Young Ones meets Rising Damp, and Dan Clark's character is indeed a mixture of Rik and Neil from The Young Ones - sometimes good looking, often nerdy and constantly depressed. While there are good performances and some funny moments, it seems too unbelievable to be really funny - however low the rent, I can't imagine why a gorgeous single girl would move into this house.