Martin Clunes

Doc Martin back after two years

Martin Clunes is back in Cornwall this week filming a new fifth series of Doc Martin - the first since the hit drama's last appearance in 2009.

The legendary lost Men Behaving Badly pilot

Whilst working on this week's Britain In A Box, I had a rare treat when we managed to obtain a copy of the original, never-broadcast pilot of Men Behaving Badly. The pilot was made for Thames TV, directed by their then Head of Comedy, John Howard Davies and starred the eventual cast of the first series, Harry Enfield, Martin Clunes, Caroline Quentin and Lesley Ash.

It was funny that Matt Lucas and David Walliams's much-heralded airport-based mockumentary, Come Fly With Me, crowned a week when Heathrow was full of people not flying with anyone. But was anything else funny? The two of them are terrific mimics, and their array of characters is vast and all are well played. And it had its broad moments of hilarity - I liked the Japanese schoolgirls waiting for Martin Clunes and the security officer cupping the genitals of male passengers. But too much of the material was thin, too many of the sketches overworked and the punchlines too obvious. At this time of year one hopes for ho, ho, ho, but I came away thinking no, no, no.

So how has Reggie been affected by the trauma he stumbled on last week? I won't say exactly what trauma, seeing as some readers won't have watched that episode yet, but given that at the best of times Reggie's grasp on sanity can be shaky, recent events could easily loosen his grip altogether. "Is it me that's crazy or is it the rest of the world?" he wonders aloud to Jasmine as events at Groomtech also take an ugly turn. As usual, Martin Clunes's comic charm is the glue that holds the series together, especially when, as tonight, it feels more like a sad, spiky drama with a taste for the surreal than a sitcom. But the scene with the nail-gun is inspired.

Martin Clunes's affability and a smattering of good lines rescue this re-imagining of the Leonard Rossiter classic from complete pointlessness. I particularly enjoyed Reggie and his adored Jasmine's discussion about her lack of a boyfriend; Jasmine: "Men are damaged, gay, ugly or married." Reggie: "Snow White's less well-known friends." But Reggie is in trouble. Grot is doing thunderously well with its terrible products and his evil boardroom bosses want to slim down Groomtech ready to sell it to the highest bidder. When he breaks the news of imminent redundancy to his staff, there is much elaborate special pleading. Things aren't much better at home where Reggie's neglected wife Nicola (Fay Ripley) is jobless and moping, and finding it hard to fend off the attentions of her randy next-door neighbour (Alexander Armstrong).

If you've ever wondered what someone tap-dancing on Leonard Rossiter's grave would look like, tune in for this version of Reggie Perrin. It's sort of like watching the original Seventies sitcom, only without any decent jokes and recorded in front of an apparently lobotomised live studio audience who guffaw at puns that Two Pints of Lager would have scorned. Even solid comic actors like Fay Ripley and Alexander Armstrong can't make this script work, while Martin Clunes, though affable enough, is badly miscast as the blackly witty Perrin. Tonight, our hero is ordered to fire one of his staff, with unhilarious consequences.

Just when something seems to be going right for Reggie Perrin, another area of his life falls apart. Last night's episode saw his new product range become a storming success, just as his wife Nicola was finally pounced upon by David. And like Reggie's life, the sitcom itself is inconsistent and unpredictable.

For roughly half of last night's thirty-minute episode, the acting and writing conspired to create a genuinely funny sitcom. However, the other half of the programme slipped into mediocrity, failing to be either amusing or true-to-life, both of which are qualities that form the whole basis of Reggie Perrin.

The division lines between funny and not-funny fell along the breaks between scenes that were set in the Groomtech offices and those that weren't. The acting is so terrible and the sets so cheap-looking inside Groomtech headquarters, that even the script seems to disintegrate when brought to life by the likes of Vicki the receptionist.

Martin Clunes was, as usual, the only breath of gravitas and humour in such scenes. He makes every shot look and feel classier, even when he's forced to play out wholly unfunny scenarios, like last night's attempts to persuade his mother that Geoffrey didn't want to marry her anymore.

Outside the Groomtech headquarters, Faye Ripley and Alexander Armstrong also belonged to the classy sitcom and their interaction in the swimming pool rang true. But back in the office, we were faced with the shoddy half of the programme again, as Reggie was forced to attend therapy sessions with the corporate wellness lady.

The show just doesn't seem to be able to decide what it is: a third-rate sitcom with shaky sets and flat characters, or a snappy comedy, well written and superbly acted. A schizophrenic sitcom; now there's something for the wellness lady to get her teeth into.

Most sitcoms don't bother with a "Previously on" reminder at the start, but Reggie Perrin is different. It has turned into a sort of serial farce, with Reggie's existential woes played out each week amid far-fetched plot twists. Now that Reggie's in charge at Groomtech, putting banana milk in the watercoolers and taking the workforce carol-singing are the least of his new departures: he has also launched a product range so suicidal (men's fragrances smelling of "shed" or "Sunday lunch") that we assume he's trying to sabotage the system from within - or is he just going quietly mad? Martin Clunes is skilful at keeping us guessing, and even when the script takes the path of least resistance (a bit too often), he can generally carry a scene with his tone and timing alone. But lordy, we could do without that daffy corporate wellness woman.

Fay Ripley's praise will be music to Clunes' ears

Fay Ripley says she is 'not a nice person' unlike her Reggie Perrin co-star Martin Clunes.

The longer it goes on, the more Reggie Perrin feels like a sad, slightly surreal drama that's become trapped in the body of an old-fashioned sitcom. Martin Clunes manages to hide the joins by making the most embittered, world-weary lines come across as faintly lovable: "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly," muses Reggie in tonight's instalment, "Modern man gotta eat his own entrails." It's one of several lines that jump out at you. Reggie's experiment with bailing out of his misery-inducing career isn't going well: "That's the trouble with living for the moment, isn't it?" he observes. "It b****rs up the next moment." His version of living for the moment involves oil painting, therapy (with daffy Sue from Groomtech) and baking bread. Meanwhile, at Groomtech, changes are afoot, giving Jim Howick as Anthony a chance to shine.