Tamsin Greig

Tamsin Greig: 'I think I'm a little bit odd'

When it comes to acting work, Tamsin Greig admits that the phone has never stopped ringing. So why does she still feel inadequate?

The BBC has its own credit crunch so repeats are piling up (five, not counting regulars, on Radio 4 alone today). But, as someone once said, it's not a repeat if you missed it first time. So, if this first radio play by Peter Souter escaped you originally, don't let it pass unnoticed now. It's funny, romantic, recognisable. Also beautifully acted (Tamsin Greig, Rory Kinnear, Nicky Henson, Kerry Shale) and directed (by Gordon House). And it heralded the start of Souter's truly promising career. If BBC radio drama funds permit, of course.

David Renwick came close to perfection in his bittersweet bouillabaisse, by turns hilarious, poignant and bleak. This first and more satisfying series from 2005 introduced lovable anxious Alice (Tamsin Greig) and the man she is surely destined to meet... A true original, in the best possible way.

The first series of David Renwick's Love Soup spent six hour-long episodes following two people who were clearly perfect for each other - but who, teasingly enough, never met. Three years later, series two has now turned up with some bad news for romantics. Far from getting together with Alice (Tamsin Greig), Gil (Michael Landers) has disappeared from the scene completely.

So it is that the show has become largely a one-hander - and, with 30-minute episodes this time, more of a conventional sitcom. Renwick does his usual professional job with the script, and Greig is as good as ever at registering various shades of disappointment. Yet, Saturday's programme, while charming, never really took off.

For one thing, when the chips were down, the professionalism frequently turned into straight sitcom contrivance. For another, some of Renwick's targets felt rather old-hat - such as his satirical observation that the portions of food in nouvelle cuisine are very small.

Most importantly, though, he seems far too much in love with Alice himself. In the first series Gil's job as a TV scriptwriter meant that Renwick could always add a bit of edge by attacking modern television. Without that, and with Alice remaining so utterly lovely, the tone is often surprisingly soppy.

I didn't like this show last time round. I still don't like anything about it. Specifics? OK. Alice, the main character, for one. She's dreary, whiney, negative, she sucks the energy out of every episode like a leech. How's that a protagonist? She's even sucked the energy out of Tamsin Greig, who plays her and who was so wonderful in Green Wing. No wonder she can't find love - Alice that is, not Tamsin (who I don't know about, but imagine has love queuing up).

I don't like the fact that so little happens. Or how implausible the few things that do happen are. I know it's meant to be comedy, not a reflection of real life; but it helps if comedy can keep a toe in plausibility (unless it's so crazy, like Green Wing, that it's funny for that very reason). But Milly falling in love with a shadow - actually more like a projection of a man on to the side of a van that miraculously happens outside her flat every night - well, that's just stupid. And I don't like its irritating jazzy soundtrack, or how small and British it all feels (and I mean both in the worst possible way). Love Soup is insipid broth and I've had enough already.

Sam (Rory Kinnear) is a director of an advertising agency. His actress girlfriend Gemma (Tamsin Greig) has gone off to film a soap opera in New York. He sets off, of course, to film his next commercial there too, finds he has a possible rival (Kerry Shale) and ends up in jail, pouring out his troubles to his distinctly under-impressed cell mate. Can we be sure of a happy ending? Well, it is Christmas. This is the first radio play by Peter Souter, creative director of a real-life major ad agency, directed by comedy whizz Gordon House.

The eyebrows have it

After the slapstick of Green Wing, how will Tamsin Greig play the Bard, asks Stephen Armstrong.