Lenora Crichlow

Dappers is about a pair of single mothers in Bristol. The cast includes Lenora Crichlow and Tom Ellis, but be warned the latter sports a chinny-beard monstrosity that you may find negatively affects his attractiveness levels. It's a strong cast that inexplicably includes Eddie Large skulking around in the background, but a certain amount of Wacky!Editing! doesn't quite cover the fact that there's not really much there. I would say that despite its Skins knock-off elements, the first show was the one that should get commissioned; but since the Radio Times dedicates several articles to Dappers and about half a line to Stanley Park, and they're likely to have better insider knowledge than me, the Bristol single mums could well be given the nod.

Ostensibly a comedy-drama, but much nearer in spirit and dramatic depth to pantomime, Material Girl stars Lenora Crichlow as Ali - unsung, unappreciated and cruelly exploited as chief designer of fashion house diva Davina Bailey. Forced to stand in the wings, while wicked boss Davina garners all the catwalk kudos in Paris, Ali is then passed over for the promotion she is entitled to and resigns in protest. But fashion can be a cruel, cruel world to a poor, defenceless girl with just a design portfolio and a pair of Manolo Blahnik's to fall back on...

The stage is set for a reworking of Cinderella with no less than two handsome princes, a disreputable old count, several best friend Buttons and more queens - wicked or otherwise - that you could shake a wand at. Its all very frothy, shallow and silly, but Material Girl is spuriously glamorous and provides enough undemanding fun to fill an hour. Whether it can sustain a series remains to be seen.

I'm guessing there'll be some crossover appeal between Glee and Material Girl, BBC1's new early-evening drama set in the preposterous world of fashion. Lenora Crichlow as hot young frock designer Ali looked more like someone who might work at Next, but perhaps she's meant to represent wholesome values amid the preening, cut-throat, candyfloss-haired twits she's up against.

Right, that's the froth dealt with. Now to the espresso underneath. With a glass of Veuve Clicquot and a line of coke on the side. Because Material Girl (BBC1), an important new drama set in the world of fashion, takes on the ­altogether more profound question: what to wear? OK, it's silly and deeply shallow. It's also gorgeous, fizzy, bitchy, self-indulgent, obviously bad for you but dangerously addictive. Careful, Material Girl could become a habit.

Dervla Kirwan makes a splendid queen bitch evil designer with no talent but an impressive Rolodex. Being ­Human's lovely Lenora Crichlow is again lovely as Ali, the talented young designer, who's tottering in five-inch heels along the thin line between the real world and fashion nonsense. Only the hunk is wrong - too puppyish and doey-eyed to be a hunk, I think. And since when did motorcycle couriers ride Harley-Davidsons?

It's part of the Babylon franchise, based on the writing of Imogen ­Edwards-Jones. This is better than ­Hotel Babylon though - simply more fun. As usual, IE-J wrote her book with "Anonymous", an insider from the world in which it's set. Unfortunately, although I understand chaos theory perfectly, I know very little about ­fashion, so can't ­comment on its veracity. But I know a woman who understands fashion well, my own insider - let's just call her Guardian fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley.

The daft, post-show, backstage ­"Darling, you are a fashion goddess" conversations between the celebrity and the designer are spot on, says JC-M. Plus the brash, very London supermodel, and the slimy Eurotrash ­business partner in the turtle neck - right again, those people are real.

Obviously a lot of old fashion cliches are dragged out, some of which JC-M could have done without, such as the scene in the shoe shop where Ali sells her soul for a nice pair of shoes: Jess is so over that scene, she's seen it about 5,000 times, come aaaawn. And where it's just plain wrong, she says, is when the baddie journalist demands sexual favours of a GIRL - very unlikely. The men in fashion really are gay. Oh, and she likes it. So I was right about that.

Flights of fancy were evident in the glossy BBC drama Material Girl, an hour that felt a bit like a day of blistering sunshine and horrendous hailstorm: funny then not funny; sharp, then suddenly, lamentably pedestrian. The story of a plucky young fashion designer and her evil former boss had all the Cinderella elements of Ugly Betty, the show it most obviously resembled. However, whereas the latter glorifies in its absurdity, its camp cartoonishness, Material Girl allowed Dervla Kirwan as Davina to dress up as Cruella de Vil, and snarl and scowl icily, but then the tone receded and became all workmanlike and clunky. British, in other words.

Lenora Crichlow as Ali, who had left the evil Davina to set up on her own, slugged beer from a bottle (to show she was a regular gal), she didn't want some fancy-schmancy star to wear her dress to the Baftas (yeah right!). Her boyfriend is just a regular guy courier who rides a motorbike and who puts her, chaste and untouched, to bed after she gets hideously drunk. What a prince.

Material Girl isn't as bad as some critics say, but it's not as fun as it could be. It's not really new to identify fashion as vapid and fashion people as empty, self-serving egotists. (Oh and for all the men to be bitchy, camp gays: there are not enough of them on TV, thanks!) There's a great moment in The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep tells Anne Hathaway she can pretend to be all superior about this empty world, but what about the blue jumper she's wearing ... which Streep then deconstructs piercingly. Material Girl could be very funny, if it had a sharper, more knowing respect for the world it sets out to satirise.

The first thing that didn't quite fit with Material Girl (BBC1) was that it didn't have Madonna's hit as its title tune. Why namecheck an iconic pop moment and then ignore it? The answer must be money - and as fashion frolics go, Material Girl, for all its catwalk affectations, is more Primark than Prada, an off-the-peg bargain that can only dream of designer exclusives. No harm in that. The fleeting nature of fashion is ideally suited to the frothy flash of Material Girl, the pantomime style tale of Ali (Lenora Crichlow), a Cinderella-type designer who is done down by her wicked ex-boss who steals all the credit for her stunning gowns. You have to take the 'stunning' on trust because everyone keeps saying they are - they looked like a load of old tat to me but then what do I know?

It's stacked to the tips of its nine-inch stilettos with clichés - Ali's best mates are a camp bloke, a ditzy model and a frumpy dogsbody - yet there's something about its cheap and cheerful lipgloss look at life that's curiously endearing. Crichlow manages to give Ali a likeability she probably doesn't deserve, given she's actually a bit of a whinger, but it's Dervla Kirwan as Ali's ex-boss Davina who gives Material Girl some much-needed bite.

In the real world, Kirwan's Davina, a spiteful stepsister to Ugly Betty's Wilhelmina, would have had Ali shipped off to a sweatshop for daring to step out of line. But Material Girl is dealing in flighty fantasy, so its narrative is driven by willing Ali to get one over on the evil old queen. But I hope Davina comes out on top - her bitchy lines are so much more bespoke.

The Beeb has been sitting on fashion comedy-drama (though it's not really either) Material Girl for a good few months now and, as all fashionistas know, the seasons move quickly - if this ever seemed like a good idea, it certainly doesn't now. Lenora Crichlow plays the downtrodden designer who gets regularly trampled on by evil sartorial overlords. But, of course, she's plucky enough to take them on, with a plot involving a war hero and someone who used to be in Hollyoaks. It's as flimsy as a chiffon blouse and a waste of the talent involved.

A new comedy-drama set in the fashion world. Lenora Crichlow, a rising talent also seen this week in spooky house-share drama Being Human, stars as ambitious young designer Ali. Dervla Kirwan provides the villainy as her scheming boss. In tonight's opening episode, after a creative flare-up at Paris Fashion Week, Ali quits to set up her own label based in London's hip Brick Lane.

Remember last year when the BBC revealed it was making a sister show to Hotel Babylon, based on author Imogen Edwards-Jones book Fashion Babylon? This is the result, although the channel has wisely renamed the show.

Because while Hotel Babylon was a guilty pleasure - and tackier than melted tar - the first episode of this sparky comedy drama is something for the cast and crew to be proud of.

It centres on fashion designer Ali Redcliffe (Being Human's Lenora Crichlow) who when we meet her is working for the fabulously ghastly diva designer, Davina Bailey (Dervla Kirwan) - imagine a British sister of Ugly Betty's manipulative Wilhelmina crossed with Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.

Fed up when Davina stabs her in the back yet again Ali quits and, with the help of a Mr Moneybags, starts up her own label.

Ali is an instantly likeable character so you wish her well. But she's soon caught between doing the right thing and being a success.

Helping - or hindering - her along the way are a string of wonderful characters, including her unscrupulous business partner, Marco (Love Soup's Michael Landes), a light-fingered, gum-chewing receptionist and a trio of friends. And, of course, her former boss - who is incredibly peeved by her protege going it alone.

We're talking Prada handbags at dawn, darlings.

Lenora Crichlow: Material Girl

She's the star of the BBC's new fashion drama, but there's more to this London actress than just heels and handbags.