Fay Ripley

Despite every fibre of its being screaming "I am but a competent ITV comedy-drama", Monday Monday is pretty likable. In this second episode Fay Ripley's Christine is in AA and trying to take back control of her working life. That's all well and good, except that she has to deal with a sexual harassment claim against resident office hunk Steven, who also happens to be sleeping with scary chief operating officer Alyson. Awkward. It's so light as to be weightless, but with a great cast (featuring Jenny Agutter, Holly Aird and the charming Morven Christie) it's definitely watchable.

If BBC Three's Personal Affairs hasn't put you off office-based comedies forever, try this slightly more pleasing effort from ITV. Set in the Leeds HQ of a failing supermarket group, it sees Fay Ripley lead the charge as the firm's incompetent alcoholic Human Resources manager, Christine, with Morven Christie as Sally - her put-upon PA whose love life is even worse than her work situation. While well-known faces such as Jenny Agutter and Miranda Hart are left largely on the sidelines in this first episode, it's a rare complaint for a sitcom to have too many classy actors, even if the script is fairly mediocre.

Fay Ripley (star of Cold Feet and Reggie Perrin) is the best thing about this new series set in the head office of supermarket chain Butterworth's.

As the alcoholic, incompetent head of Human Resources the only reason why she still has a job must be that she's the one in charge of all the hiring and firing. But despite considerable odds, Ripley manages to make an unlikeable and unlikely character human and watchable.

The company has relocated from the capital to Leeds, and a new boss has been brought in to oversee the old boss, but that's where all similarities with The Office end as this only serves up broad cliches of office life.

You'll spot Jenny Agutter as a Battenburg-baking secretary and you might recognise Tom Ellis - Oliver Cousins in EastEnders.

He was the doctor who fell in love with Little Mo and then left Walford for a new job in Leeds. Spookily, that's exactly where Monday Monday is set and his character Steven is the tastiest item on Butterworth's stocklist, being tussled over by his own boss (Holly Aird) and put-upon PA, Sally.

Fay Ripley plays a drunken, shambolic mess of a human being in this likeable if lightweight comedy-drama series.

She's Christine Frances, head of human resources at the HQ of a struggling supermarket chain, holding things together only thanks to her trusty yet savagely abused PA, Sally (played by Morven Christie) - and looking as if she's finally facing the chop when a ruthlessly ambitious management troubleshooter (Holly Aird) comes to shake the firm up.

Sally herself, meanwhile, has fallen for hunky Steven (Tom Ellis), the arrogant guy who's personal assistant to this new bigwig - only to find he and bossy-drawers have more than just a working relationship.

A strong cast also includes Jenny Agutter, Neil Stuke, Peter Wight and Saikat Ahamed.

I don't know. You wait years for a dismally unfunny, fatuous series about personal assistants, then two come along at once. Monday Monday joins the witless pantheon (alongside BBC3's Personal Affairs) and stars Fay Ripley as the inept, alcoholic head of human resources whose secretary does all the work. I think we are meant to find the whole idea of human resources intrinsically absolutely hilarious, but we've got to be given something to laugh at. Ripley's character sleeping off a hangover in her car is not, in itself, funny. The cast is good, but ill-served, particularly Holly Aird as a tough new boss who's having an affair with her empty bimbo of a male secretary. The dialogue is pitiful - any series that makes an off-colour gag based on the word "stuffing" deserves to go back to the 1970s where it belongs.

The ratings for this new series will not be great, let's face it - and that's only in part to having to compete with The Street. This comedy drama set in a supermarket head office's HR department wi... oh, sorry, I must have dozed off. Fay Ripley stars as the alcoholic department boss, apparently. Backed up by a cast including Holly Aird, Neil Stuke and Miranda Hart, I can only hope that the show is better than all the pre-publicity suggests.

The only problem with the success of this Reggie Perrin remake is that it may end up breathing new life into the old-fashioned sitcom, just when it was ready to disappear for ever after a long and miserable illness. The penultimate episode is funnier and sharper than ever. Reggie (Martin Clunes) lists some of the things that cause him distress, including death, earphones and "a sense that love is the answer coupled with a searing hatred of so many things and people". To ease his misery, he decides to take up cycling to work - an experience he likens to childbirth without a baby at the end. When he returns home, his wife (Fay Ripley) is unusually sympathetic. "At least your face broke the fall," she says.

"That's it, we're moving to Cornwall. I'll teach surfing, you can open a tin mine." As frustrated commuter Reggie Perrin (Martin Clunes) continues to be infuriated by the tedium of his life, his marriage to Nicola (Fay Ripley) is also feeling the strain in this slightly amusing sitcom remake.

For once there seems to be a consensus of opinion around the water cooler - this remake of Reggie Perrin is extremely funny. Tonight, Reggie (Martin Clunes) heads off to Finland with the beautiful Jasmine to spearhead Groomtech's thrust into the global marketplace, and for the first time his wife (Fay Ripley) senses that all is not well in their marriage. "He's changed," she says. "He's stopped taking disposable razors seriously." Reggie's take on globalisation has a universal appeal, but the funniest moment is the receptionist struggling to remember something important.

This week, Reggie (Martin Clunes) is having trouble with small talk. Of course, Reggie is struggling with bigger and worse things, but it's the small talk where it breaks out. Whether chatting by the water-cooler or having a glass of wine with his mother, he can't hit the right note, and those vivid fantasy moments he has don't help. He also continues to pine for Jasmine (Lucy Liemann), the gorgeous woman at work. Liemann has practically nothing to do, but does it well. Likewise, Fay Ripley seems wasted as Reggie's wife and tonight Geoffrey Whitehead and Wendy Craig add to the roster of comic talent worthy of more and better material. Better is the occupational health "wellness woman" whose response to any ailment is a perky "Oh that's horrid! Oh you sad sausage!" But it's a brave move for the script to mock poor-quality TV - luckily it's in one of the better lines, as Reggie notes, "Quite tiring the telly, isn't it? At one point I seemed to be watching CSI: Bournemouth."