Finlay Christie

More neatly observed, finely tuned comedies by Marcella Evaristi about modern dilemmas of shared parenting, starring Sarah Alexander as Mimi, the thrice-married mum, with Mark Bonnar as Dad (replacing David Tennant, who played him in the first series last year). Their two children are Tom (he'll be 11 now) and teenage Lucy, played by Finlay Christie and Phoebe Abbott (and very well too) about to get her mother's full attention in this first of six episodes. Marilyn Imrie directs, for independents Absolutely Productions. And there's more good news, in that there are six episodes, rather than the four of the first series. Make the most of them because big budget cuts seem to be digging into the schedule in ways that limit new programmes. Any day now across the whole schedule radio is repeating many more programmes than it once did. Sometimes that's not a bad thing, one person's repeat being another person's first hearing. But as Radio 4, in particular, produces more new programmes across a greater variety of genres than other networks, it is bound to restrict innovation and is already affecting how digital Radio 4 can use more recent programmes.

Dysfunctional families are always a good source of comedy, and they don't come much more dysfunctional than the extended family of Tom and Lucy Millar. They are the children of divorced parents Joe and Mimi, now both on their third marriages, and are constantly being shuttled between their two homes. Played by newcomers Finlay Christie and Phoebe Alexander with consummate ease, their bickering and camaraderie in the face of their parents' idiosyncrasies feel totally natural. David Tennant's Joe is just a dad wanting to do right by his kids, while Sarah Alexander is excellent as the anxious Mimi. It could be classed as Outnumbered for radio, but that would be doing a disservice to a nuanced comic take on life among the chattering classes of north London.