Nick Frost

Robert Weide, producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm, is the unlikely writer and director of this new comedy set in Watford in the late 1960s. Nick Frost stars as the accountant whose drab world is anything but swinging. He's lost his wife (Olivia Colman) and mislaid his self-esteem, leaving him trying to piece together his life.

Botched suicide attempts pop up a lot in films and TV and, here, the man putting his head in the noose and kicking away the stool is Jeremy Sloane, who has lost his job and his wife all in the same day.

Coincidentally, a similar event also opens the sitcom Uncle, which starts its terrestrial re-run on BBC One tonight.

But fate has other plans for Jeremy in this six-part comedy series specially created for actor Nick Frost by Curb Your Enthusiasm producer director Robert B Weide. (Weide also directed How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, starring Frost's friend Simon Pegg.)

Mr Sloane is set in 1969 in Watford - which is just far enough from London to have missed out on the Swinging Sixties and light years away from the glamour of Mad Men.

But it all looks glorious, confident and reassuringly expensive.

Tonight's double bill sees Mr Sloane get off to a rocky start in his new job as a substitute teacher and there are scenes set in a boozer that are filled with ­realistically snappy and rambling banter.

Sloane's friends include Peter Serafinowicz as gambling addict Ross, who is at the centre of a lovely running joke about the vagaries of 1960s-style parenting, while Olivia Colman appears in flashbacks as Sloane's wife Janet.

But even this TV Bafta darling is upstaged by Ophelia ­Lovibond, as Sloane's new love interest.

With an accent that's bang on the money, Robin is a groovy American half his age with a habit of bumping into him at his most embarrassing moments.

But she finds Sloane endearing, rather than disgusting - and you will, too.

Nick Frost-lookalike inspiration behind Mr Sloane

Acclaimed director Robert Weide has described how a chance experience with a Nick Frost-lookalike inspired him to write new Sky Atlantic series Mr Sloane.

Like Nick Helm's BBC3 comedy Uncle, this period sitcom from Sky Atlantic begins with a botched suicide attempt, but (as with Uncle) the tone lightens significantly from there. Nick Frost plays the titular Sloane, a man out of time in a swinging 60s, separated from his wife and out of work, but ploughing on regardless. Created by Curb Your Enthusiasm alum Robert B Weide, it boasts a supporting cast including Peter Serafinowicz and Olivia Colman.

Ophelia Lovibond interview

Rising actress Ophelia Lovibond is too smart to settle for playing characterless babes. She talks about her obsession with the 60s, her love of silly humour and entertaining Mr Sloane (aka Nick Frost) in her latest TV series.

Nick Frost: the film funnyman on fame and painful past

His goofy humour has lit up Spaced, Cuban Fury and now Mr Sloane. But behind the silliness lies an unexpectedly difficult past.

Nick Frost to star in Fox comedy pilot Sober Companion

Nick Frost has signed on to star in a new Fox comedy pilot called Sober Companion.

Nick Frost on Mr Slone

Nick Frost on why his 1960s-set comedy Mr Sloane doesn't swing.

Nick Frost interview

Actor and writer Nick Frost, 41, on house music, The Hobbit, and The Alcoholic's Guide to the Holy Land.

A bit like seeing Stan without Ollie or Eric minus Ernie, Nick Frost has ditched Simon Pegg to go it alone in a generally enjoyable if forgettable British romantic comedy.

Fans of Strictly should find plenty to enjoy here, even if the story is far from memorable.

Bullied by local yobs into hanging up his dancing shoes as a child, the now adult Bruce (Frost) it tempted to return to the ballroom after learning his foxy new boss is a huge salsa fan.

You don't need a degree in rom-coms to know the whole thing is going to end in a dazzling dance contest but, for an hour and a half, Frost and co-stars Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd provide amiable enough company.