Denise Welch

The Gap: Matthew Kelly delivers big laughs, but the play is only skin-deep

Jim Cartwright's latest sees two old friends reminisce about their heady youth, but it tends merely to bump over the surface of their lives.

The Gap review

The actors are lumbered with an unnecessary welter of tertiary characters who they simply send up with ridiculous costumes. After treating the central pair so fatuously, the play reaches at the end for unearned pathos where it expects us to suddenly care. The distance between this and a rich, layered, rounded play isn't a gap, but a gulf.

When this romcom about a man falling for a transgender woman first arrived, it was all a bit controversial.

What a thoroughly modern love story, and hip hip hooray to the BBC we thought as we applauded trans actress Rebecca Root for her lead role.

Now, of course, as Judy (Root) and Leo (Harry Hepple) return for a second series, the controversy has gone but we can still enjoy this wonderfully sweet comedy drama.

The plot hardly rattles along, in fact it pootles, with perhaps the odd skip. But that's fine. Not everything we watch should require an emergency manicure the next day.

As we rejoin Judy and Leo, they are in love, totally committed and making plans for a future together. But, plot twist alert, Leo has been offered a new job.

Good salary, pension, five weeks holiday. Perfect?

No, it's in London, a fair few miles from their Newcastle home. Well, we needed some kind of spanner in the works to keep us interested.

"It will be ok, we'll see each other every weekend," says Leo. Oh right, because that always goes without a hitch in sitcoms.

Meanwhile, Harry's mum Pam (Denise Welch) decides to join Judy's mum Peggy (Janine Duvitski) at a transgender support group, but is horrified when someone asks how long she's been living as a woman.

"It's the butch haircut and the way you walk," explains Peggy, helpful as ever.

And elsewhere, Anji is alarmed to discover the salon has rats. But there's a silver lining for Jackie, who takes a shine to the pest controller.

Boy Meets Girl season 2 episode 1 review

All things being done, this is a triumphant return for Boy Meets Girl. The charm and heart-warming nature of the first year is still present. The first season had education and acceptance very much at its core and thankfully, this second run looks set to carry on that theme.

Boy Meets Girl: A welcome return?

It's almost as if they didn't have any ideas and instead have given us a lot of well-worn cliches instead. The long distance job offer, the creation of a new business and a secret relationship are all well-worn comic tropes and Boy Meets Girl doesn't seem to what to do anything particularly new with any of them.