Kelly Adams

Even by his own grim standards, Martin is being spectacularly grumpy. But he has good reason to be unhappy, what with therapist Dr Timoney advising Martin and Louisa to consider parting. "Accepting separation is a success in itself," she reckons. Elsewhere, Martin has a new neighbour, Erica the arty art teacher (Kelly Adams of Hustle fame); and a visiting American - in one of the more unlikely TV cameos of recent years - turns out to be Sigourney Weaver. Undemanding fare, at least until a final scene that may floor you.

Radio Times review

Sigourney Weaver makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo when she strides into Portwenn's chemist. An American tourist with ancestral connections to Cornwall, she wants to buy eye-drops to treat her glaucoma, so inevitably she meets Dr Ellingham. "Your accent is very thick. I can't understand what you're saying," he snaps when she suggests a smile would help. Maybe his curmudgeonly manner is the reason for the brevity of her visit.

Another new arrival is young teacher Erica (Kelly Adams), who upsets the children with her unorthodox approach to art. When she's not fainting, that is. Meanwhile, Martin and Louise are still having marriage counselling with Dr Timoney (who's behaving rather strangely herself) and there's a real "ahhhh" moment when Joe is offered a transfer to the big city. Well, to Exeter. Will anyone care if he goes or if he stays?

The controversial war-zone comedy returns for a second tour of duty as we catch up with bomb disposal unit Bluestone 42 in Helmand Province, where the humour is as dark and blue as ever. Tony Gardner (Fresh Meat) is back at the top of the food chain as Lt Col Philip Smith, coolly exerting his leadership over hot-blooded troops who bicker and battle as a distraction from the ever-present threat of attack. While Captain Nick Medhurst (Oliver Chris) weighs up his handgun against that of new arrival Cpl Gordon House (Matthew Lewis), Padre Mary Greenstock (Kelly Adams) announces a special award - to the 'filthiest bastard on the base'.

Radio Times review

Is now, or ever, the right time for a sitcom set among soldiers serving in Afghanistan? Bluestone 42 tested the question with its tales of a British army bomb-disposal unit.

Bluestone 42 is written by Richard Hurst and James Cary, who have both worked on Miranda and are experienced comedy technicians. They kept scenes to a minimum length, filled any gaps with gags, and efficiently established their characters and the central plotline of smooth captain Nick (Oliver Chris) chasing cute female padre Mary (Kelly Adams), who finds him attractive despite herself but constantly rebuffs him.

It was a bit too efficient. This was a fairly conservative workplace sitcom, hung on a talking point that was likely to get commissioning editors and journalists interested. There's no cause to doubt Hurst and Cary's research, or their interest in the subject matter. What is in question is whether the comedy and the subject matter meshed together in the right way.

The soldiers were comedy types: a fussy man, a tomboy, an exceptionally vulgar Scot, an omniscient boss (Tony Gardner) who pops up at inconvenient times. They schemed and joked with each other as the captain and the padre set a will-they-won't-they arc going. With Bluestone 42 unwilling to offer comment on the war itself, the driver for episode one's plot might as well have been a lost lever-arch file or someone scratching the MD's car.

In fact it was an American colonel (Mike McShane) being fatally shot in the head, the flip treatment of which might well have troubled you if you view Western soldiers in Afghanistan as making a grim but glorious sacrifice. But if you see them as oppressive occupiers, Bluestone 42 had that covered too. The Yank's death was softened in advance by his annoying habit of crowing endlessly about his tour of duty in Fallujah.

Fallujah. Fallujah. The word became a punchline. It's just one of those funny place names, isn't it? Like Penge, or Kidderminster. At least it might be for viewers who are a bit hazy on what happened to the locals there in 2004. Anyway, Nick the raffish captain sorted out all the palaver about the team being fired on by launching an RPG into the Afghans' hut, killing them all and letting us get back to the comedy.

Of course a sitcom in a warzone isn't off-limits. But Bluestone 42 shows that it's... a minefield.

During the pitching process for this new comedy you'd guess the words "a 21st-century M*A*S*H" were uttered. Without overstating the comparisons it's not a bad description, because Bluestone 42 is a series that similarly deals in gallows humour as it follows the travails of a British bomb disposal team in Afghanistan. This first episode is largely an exercise in getting to know the characters, especially IED expert Nick (Oliver Chris) and the unit's new padre, Mary (Kelly Adams). Expect explosions, swearing and death.

Is it OK to play a bomb disposal squad in Helmand Province for laughs?

While TV's no stranger to using war as a context for laughter - M*A*S*H dealt with the Korean War and Blackadder the trenches of World War I - this new series has caused a stir because it relates to a current conflict.

But the black humour feels natural, an instinctive response to an extreme situation.

Delivered with the deadpan grin of Green Wing, there are sharply observed performances from a cast that includes Oliver Chris (Green Wing) and Kelly Adams (Hustle).

Wow, a new comedy about a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan? Isn't that a bit, y'know, sick?

Well, you'd think so, but I have to say there's nothing in episode one of Bluestone 42 (10pm, BBC Three) thatshould seriously upset anyone. Not unless religious watchdogs take offence at the unit's captain trying to get into the knickers of the new padre (who, I should explain, is played by ex-Hustle star Kelly Adams).

The writers, as you'd hope, have taken lots of advice from people with front-line experience, so it's not as if they’re straying into comedy territory they can't defend - and besides, the show is mostly about the banter between the characters, rather than dealing head-on with the most harrowing part of their job.

Even before it's broadcast, this comedy has caused a furore, dealing as it does with a squad of bomb disposal experts clearing IEDs in Afghanistan. Can such a sensitive subject get laughs?

Yes it can. Richard Hurst and James Cary (who have both worked on Miranda) evidently did their research. The banter and camaraderie are as profane as you'd expect on the frontline, and some of the humour is exceptionally dark. However, that research seems to be holding them back; they're so careful presenting a balanced view of professional soldiery that the characters are underplayed.

There is promise in the lusty captain Nick Medhurst (Green Wing's Oliver Chris) and his pursuit of the attractive new padre (Hustle's Kelly Adams), but larger-than-life roles are in short supply. Michael McShane's CIA liaison officer Carter is one, but his appearance is all too brief.

"Too soon?" one character asks in ­Bluestone 42 after he makes a tasteless quip about the death of a CIA officer. That's the question you might be asking after watching BBC3's new sitcom about a bomb disposal team in Helmand Province. After all, it's usually polite to wait until a war is actually over before you start making jokes about it.

The Korean War had been done and dusted for more than 20 years before M*A*S*H waded in. The same goes for Dad's Army, while Blackadder Goes Forth waited a good 80 years for the dust from the First World War to settle.

And after the number of documentaries the BBC has made about Afghanistan - in particular Our War, also on BBC3 - the show's writers will have been acutely aware of the potential offence they could cause by making comedy out of conflict. It seems their main concern was getting all the military details right, rather than whether they should be making it at all.

But, putting all thoughts of whether Bluestone 42 is wildly inappropriate or not to one side, thank goodness that it's actually very funny, with an excellent line in banter.

Oliver Chris is perfectly cast as Captain Nick Medhurst - the officer who fancies himself a little too much as the dashing war hero, and expects the new female padre (Hustle's Kelly Adams) to feel the same.

The big ensemble cast also includes Tony Gardner (Lead Balloon and Fresh Meat) as the Lt Colonel, Katie Lyons as the blokeish Corporal Bird and a bomb-seeking robot called Arthur.

Meet the cast of Bluestone 42

We speak to Oliver Chris, Stephen Wight, Gary Carr, Kelly Adams and the other stars of BBC3's controversial new Afghanistan war comedy.