Martin Freeman

Not Martin Freeman's greatest work

Does it work? Well, no. But let's not go crazy in our ambition here. It's ITV1. What's important is that it's not awful - and actually quite watchable, if just to try and figure out how it's going to keep going.

The second episode of this body-swap comedy drama, starring Martin Freeman and Rachael Stirling, and it's not yet as terrible as its premise suggests. Tonight ex-wideboy and now fashion journalist Danny (played by Stirling) launches a drunken attack on the fashion industry.

If you found yourself trapped in the wrong body, would anyone believe you? That's the predicament facing Veronica and Danny in week two of the sweetly subversive gender-swapping comedy.

Rachael Stirling still has the best time of it as she tries to get her new man's brain around the vagaries of fashion while fending off the romantic advances of her sock-ironing boyfriend Jay (Paterson Joseph).

For Martin Freeman, who now has the body of a DIY store worker and the mind of a frothy fashion journalist, life is an endless round of police cells as he doesn't even know his own name.

But he does know Veronica's name - so why doesn't he simply phone her, instead of constantly barging into her office and home like a total loon?

But there are two more weeks left, so the two leads must be kept apart a little longer. For now, enjoy their discomfort and some lovely performances as they discover how the other half lives.

Boy's own adventure for Martin

Martin Freeman has vivid memories of shooting his latest TV role in the centre of Manchester.

Boy Meets Girl, in which Martin Freeman plays Danny, a nerdy shelf-stacker who finds himself swapping bodies with a sassy fashion journalist called Veronica, is curiously underwritten. I don't mean by this that it's badly written, when you get writing, but that in a lot of places where a line would help it simply isn't there. A gender-swap fantasy, after all, is heavily dependent on introspection, on what it feels like to suddenly find yourself in a body that you find either alluring or disgusting. And for that we need words. At one point, for instance, Danny finds Veronica's vibrator and decides to find out how the other half comes. It's an open goal for the right kind of line, but all we get here is an orgasmic expression from Veronica as she/he flops back sated. In other words, we get a look on a woman's face when the really interesting thing would be the thoughts running through a man's head.

Martin Freeman and Rachael Stirling head a strong cast trying their best in what becomes a bit like Life On Mars meets the movie Freaky Friday, but not as good as either.

Danny Reed is a woman trapped in a man's body. Or is it the other way around? Martin Freeman and Rachael Stirling star in this gender-swapping switcheroo comedy where, after a lightning strike, two strangers wake up to find that they've traded places.

Although Martin Freeman is the better known of the two, it's Stirling - best known for her role in Tipping The Velvet as well as for being Diana Rigg's daughter - who gets the lion's share of screen time in this first episode.

With the body of Veronica but the brain of Danny, her reactions as she - or he - discovers she now has a handsome boyfriend (Peep Show's Paterson Joseph) and a luxury apartment are a wonderful mixture of horror and delight.

Mind you, not even a lightning strike can explain why the front page story on the local Manchester newspaper Veronica works for is about a traffic jam in Dublin.

As Danny and Veronica try to find their missing selves, this four-parter has a lot in common with ITV's recent hit Lost In Austen, because once Danny has stopped playing with his own breasts, he sees all the tosh women supposedly have to put up with and he's having none of it. In that respect, you can tell it was written by a man.

But while the cliches are impossible to avoid - and we'd feel cheated if they weren't there - they're handled deftly enough to sweep you along.

This madcap four-part comedy drama sees Martin Freeman employ his handy 'I'm very bewildered' acting as a dopey DIY store worker who gets struck by lightning and finds himself trapped in the body of sassy female fashion journalist Veronica (Rachael Stirling). While trying to find out what the devil has happened to his old self, Danny has to learn how to manage stilettos, bras and a boyfriend... Good fun.

Martin Freeman plays Danny, and Rachael Stirling is Veronica - two strangers who end up swapping bodies thanks to the freak affects of a storm. With hilarious results. If not for the presence of two engaging leads - Freeman can still pull it together in a post The Office world - it would be easy to dismiss this as fluffy nonsense. As it stands, the pair's attempts to get back to the right body become quite charming thanks to good performances and what could have been a disaster becomes quite entertaining. It's possibly in the wrong slot, though.

Martin Freeman is on home turf playing a lovable loser who works in a DIY store until ... dah-da-daaaah ... he is struck by lightning and transmogri-techno-babbled into the body of a mwaah-mwaah fashion journalist played by Rachael Stirling. Fish out of water hilarity ensues. You might think that the premise is the sort of thing that Jim Carrey or Rob Schneider would find behind the sofa on a wet Tuesday, but the two leads have enough chops to pull it off, just about. Also, it has James Lance in it, who tvBite definitely has a bit of a man-crush on. Worth a look. Part one of FOUR, which seems a bit de trop, mind you.