Gina McKee

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For the Hebburn special we join the Pearsons as they anticipate the arrival of Sarah (Kimbereley Nixon), Jack (Chris Ramsay) and their baby AJ as they're flying back from Switzerland. Unfortunately they fail to arrive back before the arrival of Sarah's parents and her grandmother Millie (Miriam Margolyes). The arrival of another old woman in a wheelchair means there's soon a showdown between Millie and Jack's grandmother Dot (Pat Dunn).

Upon arriving home it appears that both Jack and Sarah are enjoying their new life in Switzerland, but secretly they both confess that they hate being separated for so long. Elsewhere Gervaise (Neil Grainger) is soon trying to win back Vicki (Lisa McGrillis) and makes the ultimate gesture to her towards the end of the episode. Soon, Pauline (Gina McKee) finds herself celebrating a non-denominational winter festival when Sarah's Jewish parents are forced to stay after their car is stolen.

One of my most usual complaints about TV shows is that they drag on, but for me this special of Hebburn could've done with being about fifteen minutes longer. The fact that there was so much story to tell meant that some pivotal moments were lost in the shuffle among Joe's insistence that everyone wear hats and Margolyes and Dunn stealing the show as the warring grannies. Despite this, I still love Hebburn and think that this Christmas special was still incredibly funny with characters that I still care about. I hope that BBC2 do the right thing and give this superb sitcom a third series as it more than deserves one.

Gina McKee interview

Hebburn star Gina McKee, 49, talks punk clothing, 25 years of marriage and the striking contrast between her childhood and a life on stage.

Episode two in the second series of this strangely frictionless sitcom. It's got some really nice performances from Jim Moir (Vic Reeves) and Gina McKee; the script bobs along gently and the story develops in the way you imagine it should. It's just not quite sharp enough, leaving it blowing around in the breeze like a sliver of whimsy that's broken free from Gavin & Stacey. Dorothy moves in with the family. Ramsey builds up to proposing, and Jack's literary dreams may finally be coming true. It's nice.

Jason Cook's Geordie sitcom has warmth and personality in spades, but also a certain inconsequentiality to ensure that, while it's never a chore to watch, you couldn't call it essential either.

Tonight's episode is a case in point, as Dot moves into the family home and attracts an admirer (hardy smallscreen perennial John Woodvine), Jack (Chris Ramsey) hires an unlikely genius to paint the nursery and Pauline (Gina McKee) struggles to reconcile her ethics with the business of selling houses. The chuckles are gentle and the peril very minor indeed: nothing much happens, but it happens very pleasantly.

Where you stand on Hebburn (BBC Two) rather depends on whether you find comedian Chris Ramsey, who plays lead character Jack, as charming, witty and engaging as he plainly finds himself.

For my money, he comes across as a tad too pleased with himself.

It's symptomatic of how Hebburn, a sitcom hewn from the age-old generation-clash tradition, misses the salt-of-the-earth family feel it appears to be going for.

The character of Dot, the resident nan, is another case in point. She's a grasping woman whose blood has turned to pure bile and it's a wonder no one has dumped her in the nearest canal.

Yet we're supposed to chortle at her manipulatively nasty behaviour - I think.

It's all an awful waste of Gina McKee as Pauline, the mother of the piece and a woman mocked and undermined at every turn.

McKee lends her a serenity that's unlikely in the circumstances - she should pack her bags in the car, put ailing hubby Joe in the backseat, drive down the A1 and leave the lot of them to rot.

It's good to be back in the Tyneside town of Hebburn again, with the chaotic, rambling and well-meaning Geordie family nestled in its warm heart. Young married couple Jack and Sarah (Chris Ramsey and Kimberley Nixon) are still unwilling lodgers with Jack's parents Pauline and Joe (Gina McKee and Jim 'Vic Reeves' Moir). But Sarah's nesting instinct is overpowering now that she's pregnant, hormonal and desperate for a home of her own.

Jack is editing the hopeless local newspaper ("Dog Burns Down Factory") and Jack's mother, the magnificently passive/aggressive Dot (Pat Dunn) is still hurling barbs at Pauline. There are some great satellite characters - deluded wannabe popstar Gervaise and brassy care home worker Denise - and though the laughs might not be hearty, you'll smile a lot.