Sally Lindsay

The folk of Mount Pleasant are all covered in snow and good cheer as is proper at this time of year. We join them at first light on Christmas morning and no one has held back on the decorations. Bianca's bought Gary one of everything from the Argos catalogue, Dan and Lisa are exchanging gifts, and Pauline and Charlie are heading for their first domestic of the day. David Bradley, Paula Wilcox, Sally Lindsay, Liza Tarbuck: it's one of the most impressive casts on British television. If you like a bit of well-crafted family fun, you're in safe hands here.

The first series of this domestic sitcom set in the Manchester suburbs was too cosy and MOR for its own good but at least this second series feels better placed in its new home on Sky Living. All the regulars are back, including chirpy Lisa (Sally Lindsay), and her overbearing parents, played by Pauline Quirke and Bobby Ball.

Alongside dialogue about being "twatted with an iron bar", there's Pauline Collins being mumsy and Bobby Ball talking about his toilet issues. Sarah Hooper's suburban comedy drama is painted with such broad brushstrokes the result is a weird hybrid of Shameless and Terry and June. The cast is culled from every soapy drama you've ever seen and joined in the second series by Casualty's Claire Goose who Lisa (Sally Lindsay) befriends at the gym, and George Sampson as Jim's teenage son Gary. Shame it doesn't produce the laughs it should.

'She only went out for a glass of wine - and now it's teatime!' So much for the dramatic elements of Sky's returning suburban comedy-drama series, now on a new channel. It follows ex-Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay and her extended family and friends as they negotiate every tiny, bromidic aspect of their featureless provincial days. From the school run to the Diet Coke break and on to the travel agent, gym and a cheeky merlot in 'that new place in town' while 'the lads' sip tinnies on the sofa watching the 'big match' and mam does one of 'er spreads. Aiming to be an upwardly mobile Royle Family, right down to the Oasis track that plays over the closing credits, what it more closely resembles is an all-adult production of Byker Grove.

The residents of Mount Pleasant open the doors of their pristine northern houses for a second series of suburban shenanigans. Shelley's getting a divorce, Denise has got a baby and the cul-de-sac is about to get a hot new neighbour in the shape of Robson Green. And Britain's Got Talent's tiny dancer George Sampson graduates to his first role in the opening episode. It's gentle-enough stuff, populated by the best actors the genre has to offer - Sally Lindsay, Angela Griffin and Bobby Ball are among the likable faces.

We're heading back up to Manchester this week for the second series of foul-mouthed but fun comedy drama Mount Pleasant, which has found a new home on Sky Living. Northern treasures Sally Lindsay, Daniel Ryan, Bobby Ball and Angela Griffin are all back on board, while the episode also welcomes Casualty's Claire Goose (remember her?) as a troublesome new friend of Lisa's (Lindsay) and Britain's Got Talent imp George Sampson as Bianca's (Sian Reeves) stepson Gary. If you've got nowt to do on Wednesday, stick on a brew, get in some scran and have a buzz to Mount Pleasant (did we get that right, Manchester?).

Sky One orders second series of Mount Pleasant

Sky One has ordered a second series and a Christmas Special of its comedy/drama series Mount Pleasant starring Sally Lindsay, Pauline Collins and Daniel Ryan.

Sarah Hooper's series about the perky goings on in a recession-untroubled Mancunian suburb is billed as comedy drama, as if to suggest you're getting two things for the price of one, but in truth it's short on both, unless you count hackneyed sexual intrigue as drama and affected, sub-Coronation Street dialogue as comedy. It's comfort telly, relying on a cast of familiar faces including Pauline Collins, Tommy Ball, Angela Griffin and Sally Lindsay as Lisa, whose over-indulgent lunches lead to speculation that she is pregnant.

So bad, it has to be seen to be believed. Only don't see it, because it is so bad that seeing it would make you angry. So believe us, it's bad, not that you can believe how bad it is without seeing it, unless you've got a really good imagination about bad comedy dramas on TV. And even if you were on an Alistair Cook like streak of imagining terrible drama, you'd probably still not quite manage to think of how bad this is.

It's a battle of the sexes set in suburban Manchester that wants to be Cold Feet meets Desperate Housewives. And watching it will certainly leave the viewer cold and desperate (if you think that's a weak joke, then watch the show and come back to us).

The acting isn't too awful - well, it is but you're aware throughout that it's eminently possible that Angela Griffin, Sally Lindsay, Bobby Ball and Liza Tarbuck could make a decent show (actually, not Tarbuck). The script, however, doesn't just mock their efforts, it takes a show to Edinburgh about their efforts, comes back down and then punches them in the face.

Seriously, it's bad. Believe us.