Steve Edge (I)

A consciously old-fashioned comedy one-off, with Catherine Tate and Miles Jupp as a couple whose stay in a honeymoon suite might save their marriage, if only ludicrous circumstance doesn't nobble them. There's quality throughout the cast, with Steve Edge and Car Share's Sian Gibson as the hotel staff, but farce is hard to write and this script falls well short. The pace doesn't gather, nothing anyone does is plausible, and the dialogue is littered with dead lines. Cringeworthy, in the wrong way.

Honor Kneafsey, Steve Edge & Bobby Knutt interview

As Benidorm returns for an incredible eighth series, Billy, Sheron, Eddie, Rob and Jodie, otherwise known as the Dawsons, make their on-screen debut.

More gentle ups and downs in Matlock. Terry (Brendan Coyle) is getting high blood pressure from his building project, while his wife Jan (Lesley Sharp) is further enchanted by her creative writing class, and its sensitive but hunky teacher (Vincent Regan). Meanwhile, Bell (Rebecca Night) clashes, in some nicely timed scenes, with her fussy mother-in-law-to-be (Jaye Griffiths).

As usual, creators Steve Edge and Matt King give themselves the most fun, as Fergie and Loz set up an organic glamping business, but are thwarted by Loz's morbid fear of ventriloquists' dummies.

Matt King (Super Hans) and Steve Edge write another series of their gentle, Derbyshire-set family drama starring Lesley Sharp and Brendan Coyle. Mr and Mrs Starling navigate the gently lapping waters of marriage while he continues with his building work and she takes a creative writing course taught by a total hornbag (Vincent Regan) who is definitely going to start pestering her for sex. Meanwhile, Charlie hurts her foot, Gravy digs up some treasure and Reuben has an important question for Bell. Dead cute.

Given that ratings for the first series of this comedy-drama had halved by the third episode, it's fair to say few expected its return. Indeed, the show's writers - Peep Show star Matt 'Superhans' King and Steve Edge (who played racist Daryl in series two of the same show) have scripted an opener in which literally nothing interesting or amusing or clever or original happens to anyone.

Someone steps on a nail and goes to A&E. Someone else finds an old box in their garden with a metal detector and digs it up. King and Edge's characters (essentially Superhans minus crack, Daryl minus Nazi salutes) accidentally steal a pair of scissors from a hardware store and get detained by security. God, it's awful. All the while, a soundtrack of five year-old indie hits gives Starlings the feel of an unfunny Inbetweeners, or worse still, an episode of Hollyoaks.

Tired set-ups, misfiring humour: this is a show that belongs in an entirely different era. It may have found a little love in the early '90s, when mediocre-at-best family dramas were passable primetime fluff, but we'd prefer to see it shunted back through history a little further - any time before the invention of the television would be just fine.

Gently understated and truthful, Matt King and Steve Edge's series has been frequently delightful. The season draws to a close with Grandad (Alan Williams) getting a shock during a visit from an old friend. Elsewhere the-will-they-won't-they relationship between Reuben (Ukweli Roach) and Bell (Rebecca Night) takes yet another turn thanks to the intervention of Terry (Brendan Coyle), and Fergie (Edge) makes a surprise announcement to Loz (King) during a drawing class.

In tonight's episode of the clean-cut, sweet-natured comedy - think of it as the Larkins in Derbyshire - Loz (Matt King) and Fergie (Steve Edge) fall out over Loz's new girlfriend (Dolly Wells), Bell (Rebecca Night) and Reuben (Ukweli Roach) see a counsellor and Charlie (Finn Atkins) is offered a trial at Derby County much to the delight of her father (Brendan Coyle), who spots a chance to meet a former hero.

Shows like this have the tricky task not just of being good, but of befriending us. We must think of the Starling family as friends we'd like to spend Sunday night with.

Episode two of Matt King and Steve Edge's humble saga cements that feeling, laying on familiar comedy-drama trappings - a tasteful folk-pop soundtrack, some slightly hammered-home plots, the odd scene where people just sit about being nice to each other - but colouring them with sharp comic set pieces and foibles that give the characters depth. Everyone here is a bit lost in life, but has hope in the form of their loved ones' support - a simple truth that warms the heart.

The sweet nature of Starlings is proving infectious thanks to an endearingly observant script by writers Matt King and Steve Edge. Tomboy Charlie (Finn Atkins) joins dad Terry (Brendan Coyle) in the family business, Reuben (Ukweli Roach) begins a new job in spite of interference by Fergie (Edge), and Uncle Lodz (King) gets a shock at his first art show.

Starlings, Matt King and Steve Edge's new series for Sky1, is what you might call acoustic guitar comedy. You don't get a laugh-track, you get Bon Iver singing something plangent over a low-key (and slightly over-crowded) family drama. It is very sweet, which is both praise and blame, since the absence of sharp edge may not be to everyone's taste. "Need more warm," says one character as he shuffles off to top up his partner's birthing pool. No. Need more hot and cold.