Sarah Alexander

This latest attempt by BBC One at a mainstream sitcom is a ditzy domestic affair about single mother Gemma Jones (Sarah Alexander), who spends her life dealing with her twin girls, her midlife-crisis-suffering ex (Neil Morrissey) and his stereotypical Swedish girlfriend. So when a handsome father (Nathaniel Parker) asks Gemma out on a date while she's on the school run, it's a welcome offer. That is, until her student son returns from a backpacking trip with his flirtatious friend Billy (Robert Sheehan) and Mrs Jones unexpectedly finds she's got more than one love interest. Solidly played by a strong cast, this comedy is gently amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny.

Starring Sarah Alexander as Gemma, a divorced mum, and Neil Morrissey as her ex-husband, now shacked up with a stern eastern European woman, it may be too early to judge this new sitcom made by an all-female team of writers and producers. Yet the lack of a laugh track is ominously matched by a lack of laughs in this opener, with script and set pieces feeling contrived, as Gemma is caught between dating a leery dad from the school run and experiencing a frisson of desire for her son's best friend.

Sarah Alexander interview

Former Coupling and Green Wing actress Sarah Alexander returns to our screens in the new comedy Me and Mrs Jones.

The eclectic north-London family is back for a second series in this popular comedy drama from writer Marcella Evaristi. Sarah Alexander and Mark Bonnar play divorced parents Mimi and Joe, who find common ground in the trials and tribulations of their children Tom and Lucy.

In this first episode, Joe talks Tom out of garroting his mother's fictional creations, "You are a boy, boys are crap at sneaky", while Mimi bursts Lucy's inflated ego as she prepares to audition for the school production of Oliver!

At times, this squabbling suburban sitcom feels all too familiar, retreading the same tired path as the Brockman family in Outnumbered. However, the razor-sharp dialogue, disarming charm and excellent cast more than make up for its shortcomings.

More neatly observed, finely tuned comedies by Marcella Evaristi about modern dilemmas of shared parenting, starring Sarah Alexander as Mimi, the thrice-married mum, with Mark Bonnar as Dad (replacing David Tennant, who played him in the first series last year). Their two children are Tom (he'll be 11 now) and teenage Lucy, played by Finlay Christie and Phoebe Abbott (and very well too) about to get her mother's full attention in this first of six episodes. Marilyn Imrie directs, for independents Absolutely Productions. And there's more good news, in that there are six episodes, rather than the four of the first series. Make the most of them because big budget cuts seem to be digging into the schedule in ways that limit new programmes. Any day now across the whole schedule radio is repeating many more programmes than it once did. Sometimes that's not a bad thing, one person's repeat being another person's first hearing. But as Radio 4, in particular, produces more new programmes across a greater variety of genres than other networks, it is bound to restrict innovation and is already affecting how digital Radio 4 can use more recent programmes.

If though, you are one of those people who want to hear more about north London, or indeed the talented David Tennant, who pops up like a specially resilient strain of ground elder in every part of our cultural experience these days, then The Gobetweenies is for you. It features the kind of hands-on, amicably divorced parents who discuss Duchamp's urinals with their children over tea. Mimi, played by Sarah Alexander, is "a smart award-winning children's fiction writer" intent on 24/7 education. As one of her children says, "anything you ever want to talk about it's bingo, she's off to get a book." David Tennant as Joe frets satirically about the agony of children having to shuttle between two sets of parents, and decides to move back in. Phoebe Abbott, who sounds uncannily like Pip in The Archers, plays an irritating child very convincingly. Anyone who rues the day that "parent" became a verb will hate this, but to the rest of us it's all very recognisable. It's occasionally funny. Whether that makes it satire is another matter.

David Tennant plays Joe, father of 10-year-old Tom and teenage Lucy. He's no longer married to Mimi (Sarah Alexander). She's on marriage three now but both parents try hard to keep the ties that, naturally, will bind them all at least until the two children have finished school. So there's lots of driving around, talking on mobile phones, picking up and bringing back, trying not to contradict each other. But it's all very wearing so Joe has a bright idea. Is is practical? This comedy by Marcella Evaristi shows every sign of being neatly drawn from life.

Dysfunctional families are always a good source of comedy, and they don't come much more dysfunctional than the extended family of Tom and Lucy Millar. They are the children of divorced parents Joe and Mimi, now both on their third marriages, and are constantly being shuttled between their two homes. Played by newcomers Finlay Christie and Phoebe Alexander with consummate ease, their bickering and camaraderie in the face of their parents' idiosyncrasies feel totally natural. David Tennant's Joe is just a dad wanting to do right by his kids, while Sarah Alexander is excellent as the anxious Mimi. It could be classed as Outnumbered for radio, but that would be doing a disservice to a nuanced comic take on life among the chattering classes of north London.

Apart from a pronounceable surname, Mr Serafinowicz has it all, really - a great career as a comic actor, writer, composer and a lovely wife in fellow funny thesp Sarah Alexander off Green Wing and Mutual Friends. Now he's also got a Christmas edition of his own sketch series, and he'll be spoofing TV shows, shopping channels and Hollywood news bulletins and generally larking about. And jolly good for him.