Hebburn

Episode two in the second series of this strangely frictionless sitcom. It's got some really nice performances from Jim Moir (Vic Reeves) and Gina McKee; the script bobs along gently and the story develops in the way you imagine it should. It's just not quite sharp enough, leaving it blowing around in the breeze like a sliver of whimsy that's broken free from Gavin & Stacey. Dorothy moves in with the family. Ramsey builds up to proposing, and Jack's literary dreams may finally be coming true. It's nice.

Jason Cook's Geordie sitcom has warmth and personality in spades, but also a certain inconsequentiality to ensure that, while it's never a chore to watch, you couldn't call it essential either.

Tonight's episode is a case in point, as Dot moves into the family home and attracts an admirer (hardy smallscreen perennial John Woodvine), Jack (Chris Ramsey) hires an unlikely genius to paint the nursery and Pauline (Gina McKee) struggles to reconcile her ethics with the business of selling houses. The chuckles are gentle and the peril very minor indeed: nothing much happens, but it happens very pleasantly.

Video: 'The Naked Truth' with... Chris Ramsey

Taking a break from making the nation laugh, Ramsey came into DS Towers for our celebrity confessional, 'The Naked Truth'.

Though it's occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, the main appeal that Hebburn has is its characters most of whom are likeable and realistic. Jason Cook, who also stars as Ramsey, has written a great script which obviously draws on experiences of his own family life and I feel that the series is incredibly well-observed. In addition, this second series sees the cast become much more comfortable with their characters which just adds to the charm of the piece. Ramsay and Nixon share great chemistry as the lead couple while McKee is brilliant as the warm yet slightly patronising matriarch. Stealing the show though is Dunn, who plays the greedy mother-in-law from hell roll with great aplomb and therefore generates the majority of the show's big laughs. In fact it comes to something when Vic Reeves is the straight man of the series but here, using his real name Jim Moir, is just happy to be a supporting player as his Joe attempts to recuperate. Overall, Hebburn is a charming and well-observed sitcom that feels very old-fashioned but at the same time has plenty of modern sensibilities.

Not all the inhabitants of South Tyneside were that thrilled when the sitcom Hebburn (BBC Two) was broadcast last year, so I doubt they are pleased to see it return for a second series. I can't say that I was initially, either, as I hadn't found it particularly funny. It's still not exactly subtle comedy, but the first episode of the new run turned out to have more gags than the whole of the first series combined. If scriptwriter Jason Cook can belatedly find his sense of humour, then so can the people of Hebburn.

Where you stand on Hebburn (BBC Two) rather depends on whether you find comedian Chris Ramsey, who plays lead character Jack, as charming, witty and engaging as he plainly finds himself.

For my money, he comes across as a tad too pleased with himself.

It's symptomatic of how Hebburn, a sitcom hewn from the age-old generation-clash tradition, misses the salt-of-the-earth family feel it appears to be going for.

The character of Dot, the resident nan, is another case in point. She's a grasping woman whose blood has turned to pure bile and it's a wonder no one has dumped her in the nearest canal.

Yet we're supposed to chortle at her manipulatively nasty behaviour - I think.

It's all an awful waste of Gina McKee as Pauline, the mother of the piece and a woman mocked and undermined at every turn.

McKee lends her a serenity that's unlikely in the circumstances - she should pack her bags in the car, put ailing hubby Joe in the backseat, drive down the A1 and leave the lot of them to rot.

TV review: Hebburn, BBC2

Hebburn has some of the sentiment of The Royle Family and some of the wit of Gavin & Stacey, but it really belongs to that breed of untaxing sitcom in which the gentle laughs are so predictable that you could set your pacemaker by them.

The small-town comedy returns with two pregnancies, a funeral and dad Joe recovering from a stroke. With Sarah's hormones running riot, she's putting pressure on Jack to get them out of his mum and dad's spare room, while Pauline's got a job as an estate agent. It's mostly warm and affectionate, but occasionally strays into one too many gags about the locals being a bit stupid, especially with Vicki and bad pub singer Gervaise. As ever, Jack's potty-mouthed ex, Denise, gets the more raucous and funniest lines.

Chirpy Geordie comedian Chris Ramsey returns as chirpy Geordie journalist Jack - he's pretty much playing his stand-up self - in this old-school family sitcom where love means insulting your nearest and dearest. Jack's not quite such a lad this time around. He's been promoted to editor of the local newspaper and has a baby on the way to boot. He's got numbskulls at work to deal with and girlfriend Sarah (Fresh Meat's Kimberley Nixon) is putting the pressure on to find a place of their own. It's enough to put the dampener on any lad's chirpiness...

It's good to be back in the Tyneside town of Hebburn again, with the chaotic, rambling and well-meaning Geordie family nestled in its warm heart. Young married couple Jack and Sarah (Chris Ramsey and Kimberley Nixon) are still unwilling lodgers with Jack's parents Pauline and Joe (Gina McKee and Jim 'Vic Reeves' Moir). But Sarah's nesting instinct is overpowering now that she's pregnant, hormonal and desperate for a home of her own.

Jack is editing the hopeless local newspaper ("Dog Burns Down Factory") and Jack's mother, the magnificently passive/aggressive Dot (Pat Dunn) is still hurling barbs at Pauline. There are some great satellite characters - deluded wannabe popstar Gervaise and brassy care home worker Denise - and though the laughs might not be hearty, you'll smile a lot.