Free Agents

It's sad to see this excellently scripted and naturally played sitcom come to an end tonight but it does, at least, end in style. Helen and Alex's testy, will-they-won't-they relationship reaches an interesting and poignant denouement, and Anthony Head's gleefully horrible Stephen is given a great opportunity to go into lasciviousness overdrive with Stephanie Beacham. More please.

Tonight is the series finale of this modern romantic comedy, in which two attractive people (Sharon Horgan and Stephen Mangan) are failing to have an affair. She drinks a lot of red wine and asks herself repeatedly: "When is anything ever going to start being good again?" For his part, he is trying not to walk out on people whenever the going gets tough. The Daily Express got overexcited about the bad language in the show, asking its readers: "Is this the foulest 'comedy' ever?", ignoring the fact that it was essentially a rather sweet love story between two befuddled people. It is true that the boss of the agency (Anthony Head) wallows in the mire like an ecstatic hippo, but I've been reliably informed that his character is based on a real person.

Filthier than Ray Mears' armpits after a week swamp snorkelling, the sailor's vocabulary peppered throughout the fractured romance between Stephen Mangan and Sharon Horgan has kept sappiness at bay. There is some affection in here somewhere, but thankfully it's been buried under a barrage of cynicism and damaged personalities, which is such a change from the usual romantic comedy. And there's certainly nothing usual about Anthony Head's wedding in this series closer, where he's all set to marry a high-class hooker...

A reasonably tittersome sitcom that has largely kept its head above water thanks to some good performances from the leads (although Sharon Horgan irritates me intensely and I can't work out why). But the real star of the show has been Anthony Head as slimy agency boss Stephen, who manages to do sleazy better than any other actor on TV. It's no Peep Show - nor is it in the same league as The IT Crowd - but, Free Agents hasn't been dreadful, and a second series would be welcome.