Craig Cash

Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash's wonderful observational sitcom about a working-class Manchester family who seem never to leave their sitting room is now going the way Only Fools and Horses did, with an eagerly awaited one-off episode each Christmas. Tonight's instalment, for which no preview discs were available, is deliberately unfestive, with Jim (Ricky Tomlinson) and Barbara (Sue Johnston) wondering whether to spend a cash gift from their children on a satellite HD box or their first trip out of the UK. Afterwards, at 10.00pm, the final series of Gavin & Stacey - a sitcom which owes more than a nod to the Royles - begins to wind down, as the Essex crowd go on an eventful trip to the beach.

Early Doors is easily the best thing on telly tonight. It's the first episode of Craig Cash's sublime pub-based sitcom. From the moment that Ken starts up singing 'The Greatest Love Of All', while swearing at cigarette butts in the urinals, it feels classic. From Eddie's boring stories about temporary traffic lights ("Better go and get that door, it might be Michael Aspel for you") to the policemen complaining about the curtains, it's all so beautifully observed it feels like art.

Writers Craig Cash and Phil Mealey had a hit with the comedy drama Sunshine last year. But this 2003 sitcom is finer and more satisfying: the jokes are earthier and less obvious, and the pathos is subtle rather than being sentimentally spooned on. It all takes place in a Manchester pub.

Another chance to catch the under-the-radar 2003 sitcom from Phil Mealey and long-term Caroline Aherne collaborator Craig Cash, which centred around the comings and goings of a Manchester pub. Naturalistically played, subtle and well worth sticking with.

Sunshine was a three-part BBC series from the pen of Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, starring Steve Coogan. Never quite sure what it wanted to be, the show was diverting enough, but had a tendency at times to be overly mawkish and sickeningly sweet.

We reach the conclusion of the tear-jerking comedy drama about a likeable layabout's gambling habit and its effects on his family. What should have been a top-class affair, co-written by The Royle Family's Craig Cash, hasn't quite turned out that way. While Coogan's retired roadie Tommy was a brilliantly observed has-been in the overlooked Saxondale, bin man Bing has been left to drown in a vat of family bonding.

This lovely little drama from Craig Cash and Phil Mealey comes to an end as Bing (a rather excellent Steve Coogan - which is a relief after last week's criticisms of his live show) attempts to beat his gambling addiction once and for all and win back his wife. He has a lot of hurdles to overcome, and then there are his dad's problems waiting to come to light - will they send Bing spiralling back into the grip of addiction? There'll be tears and laughter before bedtime, mark my words...

If some people see life as a comedy, while others insist it is a tragedy, then the writing team of Craig Cash and Phil Mealey must fall into the first camp. They just can't help themselves from seeing the funny side of the most dire situations. They would probably get the giggles at a funeral.

And while that's better than going through life being a total misery, that could explain why this series about the very unfunny problem of gambling addiction is looking a bit unsteady on its pins as it lurches drunkenly from the sweet to the sour.

Having said that, if you don't get a little seasick from the shifting tone there's plenty to enjoy here - especially in the cockle-warming friendship between little Joe and his grandad George. And also, of course, in Steve Coogan's central performance as eternal loser Bing Crosby.

The Stage Review

That Sunshine succeeds so effectively as both comedy and drama is down to a witty and original script by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey combined with a very impressive performance from Coogan, who manages to strike just the right note between amiable and infuriating, amusing and appalling.

Indeed, Sunshine is so well done that it is almost too painful to watch, and it's going to require something of an act of will from me to return for a further helping of Bob's wilful self-destruction. The jokes and great lines certainly come thick and fast, but the underlying mood is one of despair with just a hint of impending doom.

Sunshine was a feel-good north country drama co-written by Craig Cash. It was The Royle Family drenched in syrup, but with a feel-bad central character. This was an uneasy mixture. Steve Coogan was Bing, a father with a gambling habit who gets stitched up in an illegal gambling club, having blown his partner's holiday savings in an attempt to pay back the mortgage arrears. Playing the part with a convincing mixture of bumptious charm and desperate vulnerability, Coogan is a pretty good character actor if you can ever forget that this is Steve Coogan. By the end I had just about managed it.