Miriam Margolyes

"It is the autumn of 1922, give or take a year or two," rolls out the upper-class, Noël Coward-esque voice of the unnamed narrator of this six-part comedy drama. Cut to Vera Sackcloth-Vest (played with crazed gusto by the fabulous Miriam Margolyes), writer, gardener and transvestite, who is struggling with her staff at Sizzlinghurst Castle. Why do they insist on calling her madam instead of sir? Country life in Kent is so tedious and Vera longs for some excitement. What she needs is to elope with a lover, but first she had better run this past her devoted husband, Henry.

Writer Sue Limb echoes the literary styles of the Bloomsbury Set with pin-point accuracy. Our introduction to Ginny Fox (a brilliantly perceptive, if rather cruel, take on Virginia Woolf, portrayed with obvious relish by Alison Steadman) has the introspective writer staring at a crack in the ceiling for hours and being reminded of her love for Sackcloth-Vest.

How long it will be before these two can escape the drudgeries of normal life (in vast country estates!) and elope with one another is the subject of this opening episode. The writing and acting are both faultless and the series cast includes other great comic names such as Morwenna Banks, Nigel Planer and John Sessions, who crops up as saucy novelist DH Lollipop in future weeks.

This is a real Bohemian rhapsody - and I bet it moves to TV!

The generous sexual morés of Bloomsbury have been a gift to satirists for decades, and Sue Limb becomes the latest writer to unwrap their comic potential. It is an Autumn afternoon at Sizzlinghurst Castle where writer Vera Sackcloth-Vest is planning one of her Sapphic elopements and wants to tidy the garden before she goes. "I must just tie up Mrs Herbert Stevens," she cries. "I don't want her thrashing about in a gale." Miriam Margolyes stars as Vera, while Alison Steadman and Morwenna Banks play her inamorata, Ginny Fox and Venus Traduces.

Race gaffe as Will.i.am meets Mir.i.am

Will.i.am was left stunned on TV last night after actress Miriam Margolyes said it was nice to meet him because he is black.

Martin's auntie Ruth puts her ­psychiatry skills to good use tonight when she meets her batty neighbour Shirley Dunwich, played by Miriam Margolyes.

Shirley thinks her ­delinquent artist son is trying to poison her and Martin's concerned that the woman's mental faculties have been affected. Actually, he's the one who's not particularly on the ball this week.

In two scenes, he calls characters by the wrong names - referring to his new receptionist's grandfather Mr Newcross as Mr Dunwich and calling Shirley Dunwich Mrs Winchelsea.

What's that all about, do you think?

The actor and writer Eric Sykes, with whom Hattie Jacques had an enduring partnership on television, once described the matronly comic actress as "one of the very best". She was also referred to as the "Mother Superior of the Carry On family". This repeated profile, with contributions from Sykes, Miriam Margolyes and Mo Mowlam, looks back at Jacques's life and career in television and film, and at the sad fact that her talents as a straight actress were often overlooked because, as she lamented, directors only gave her "funny fat lady" parts. A new drama about Jacques's life, Hattie, airs on BBC Four on Wednesday, January 19.