Neil Edmond

Swede Caroline review

Lovably eccentric mockumentary delves into the shady world competitive veg growing.

Home Time: Bucket

Hello again. In Home Time episode five, The Girls finally hear the tick of the Growing Up Clock, as Kelly turns 30.

Home Time: Underdressed

Hello. We've decided to take this in turns. This week, Emma's 'doing up her hall'. I must again emphasise that this is not a euphemism. Not as far as I know. Either way, you're stuck with me.

Home Time: The Army

Co-writer Neil Edmond: "There's no dedicated film studio in Coventry, so our elegant and hardworking production manager Lyndsay White found us a Territorial Army base, just off the central ring road. The TA were very accommodating, especially considering that they could have shot us or tank-rammed us at will."

Co-Writer Neil Edmond's blog

"First off, I'm not Emma Fryer. What with her being leggy and funny and a talented oil painter, I wish I was. I dare say you'd prefer to read a blog by her, too, with its implicit waft of perfume and a hint of knickers. Sorry."

Everyone says new comedies should be allowed a few episodes to bed down, though I've never understood why - who has the time to stick with something just in case it gets better? Which brings us to Home Time, from the Baby Cow stable that brought you Gavin & Stacey. It's an odd one - strangely flat and with a very irritating central character: a woman who left Coventry for London aged 17 and returns 12 years later to live with her parents. Her room hasn't changed, the East 17 poster is still on the wall and Oasis are still in the CD player. And her parents still treat her as if she's a wayward teenager. Most of her friends have stayed trapped in a 1997 time warp. Despite its shortcomings, there's a germ of something in Home Time that could turn out to be quite good, if you do have time to stay with it. There are some funny lines and writers Emma Fryer and Neil Edmond have captured the horrors of going back to an old life. But it should have been tried out on BBC3 first.

This promising new sitcom comes from Baby Cow - the same company that gave us Gavin & Stacey. And on the strength of this first episode it deserves the same kind of success.

Emma Fryer (who co-wrote it with her mate Neil Edmond) stars as 29-year-old Gaynor Jacks. Gaynor left her home in Coventry just days before her 18th birthday for the bright lights of London. Now, 12 years later, she's come back to her home town with her tail between her legs - to face the smothering, over-protective love of her mum and dad and the wrath of her three former best mates.

They're furious with her for leaving without a word and also resentful of the notion that London might possibly offer anything you can't get in Coventry. It's the sort of understated, subtle and very clever comedy that you really need to discover for yourself.

And, like Pulling and Getting On, it's a joy to see another sitcom about real women.

Pick of the Day

Elsewhere, Knocker (11.15pm, BBC7) is having a few laughs at the expense of market researchers. Ian Dunn (Neil Edmond) is the International Query Board UK's longest-serving door-to-door interviewer, spreading a little irritation everywhere he goes with his broken clipboard and inappropriate footwear. Some people, it seems, would rather hide in their bins than answer questions about flannels ...