Home Time

Home Time: The Army

Co-writer Neil Edmond: "There's no dedicated film studio in Coventry, so our elegant and hardworking production manager Lyndsay White found us a Territorial Army base, just off the central ring road. The TA were very accommodating, especially considering that they could have shot us or tank-rammed us at will."

Perhaps due to its lack of laugh track, we didn't really get the first episode of Home Time. It seemed a bit Pulling-lite. On reflection, we were a bit harsh. The second ep confirms that it is actually really quality. Gaynor's fake Irish ('wonderful sense of community they have') mum (Marian McLoughlin) steals every scene but Gaynor's downbeat presence on her return to Coventry is a good centre to the show and her mates (particularly Coventry business woman Becky, author of 'The Sexual Workolution') rotate amusingly around her. Tonight they attempt to get her a boyfriend and a chance at a job at Coventry's premier cladding firm CovConClad, so long as she can impress the big-wigs at a dinner party.

Home Time could almost be seen as a companion piece to Off the Hook, showing what happens when youthful aspirations turn sour.

Emma Fryer stars as 29-year-old Gaynor, reluctantly returning to her home town of Coventry, after 12 years trying to live the big city dream in London. The school friends she abandoned are slow to welcome her back, offer sympathy or forgive what they see as a terrible betrayal.

Fryer, the series' co-writer, generously provides her co-stars with all the best lines and is content to quietly wander through proceedings in a state of bemused distress. But don't be put off by Home Time's bitter-sweet premise. It is a delight - consistently funny, frequently inspired and very moving.

Home Time is another excellent Baby Cow comedy where the basis of the story is completely believable, and the narrative drags you in. It starts with a very obvious joke and, for a minute, you think that you are going to watch a BBC3 version of Sorry - but by the end you are completely drawn into this comic hell.

I am sure that if one of my best friends was a reincarnation of Badger from The Apprentice, I would have disappeared for 12 years, which is the premise for the series - what and where has Gaynor been since 1997 when she ran away on her 18th birthday?

Now 29, she's back, and I for one will be following her journey mainly because, like Gavin and Stacey, you completely care about the characters. It is written by, and stars, Emma Fryer, who plays Gaynor with a sensitivity and vulnerability that brings out the comedy brilliantly. First episodes are notoriously hard to do but the team behind Home Time have cracked it.

Our friends at Baby Cow may have another hit comedy on their hands with Home Time. The six-part series centres on lead character Gaynor Jacks (played by Emma Fryer), who returns home to her parents' house at the age of 29 after having run away 12 years earlier. Life hasn't changed much - her mother is still obsessively nosy, her father is narcoleptic and it's impossible to do anything without the rest of Coventry knowing about it.

We don't know why Gaynor ran away on the eve of her 18th birthday, or why she returned, but her crew of Sex And The City mates demand an explanation before taking her back. It's a charming comedy with some hilarious moments and taps into the trend of young adults returning home to live with their parents.

Co-Writer Neil Edmond's blog

"First off, I'm not Emma Fryer. What with her being leggy and funny and a talented oil painter, I wish I was. I dare say you'd prefer to read a blog by her, too, with its implicit waft of perfume and a hint of knickers. Sorry."

Hold on to your remote control units, Home Time is that dispiritingly rare thing in a new comedy: it's funny. Gaynor, beautifully played by co-writer Emma Fryer, is a mixed-up 29-year-old who left her native Coventry at 17 and hasn't been seen since, even by her parents. Her old friends, still furious with her for doing a runner and not having the decency to come back even when Diana died, have stayed, stagnating, in "Cov". It's slickly and engagingly done, as we might expect of Baby Cow, the production company that gave us Gavin & Stacey. Of course, expectations are routinely dashed by television. But these might just last the course.

With the exception of BBC4's Getting On, British comedy has been suffering from a lack of inspiration lately, with sub-par sketch shows sucking the life out of it. It's a pleasure, then, to come across Home Time, which is as smart and original as it is sad and funny. Ideal's Emma Fryer co wrote the series and stars as Gaynor, the 29-year-old Coventry native who suddenly returns to her home town after 12 years in London: "A lot's changed . . . We've got an Ikea now." It's perfectly observed and deserves to do well.

This was a promising idea for a comedy series. Gaynor returns to her parents' home in Coventry after ten years in London. She left home on her 18th birthday to start a new life, burning her bridges and losing all contact with family and friends. Now she's back with her tail between her legs, feeling bruised and vulnerable and unsure about how everyone will react to her return. It was co-written by and stars the comedian Emma Fryer, who says: "I realised anyone can move away and re-invent themselves. But the people you grew up with know the truth. They've seen you doing a rap about recycling in school assembly." Unfortunately, it sounds better than it is. Comedy and drama can work together seamlessly, but it is unsettling when the two are jostling for pole position.

Imagine leaving home as a wayward teen at 17, and then reluctantly returning to your parents' middle-class suburban hell 12 years later, having failed to make it - and still being treated like a kid as if nothing has changed. That's the idea behind this new comedy from Baby Cow (the people behind the excellent Gavin & Stacey) but it flounders thanks to a script and director bereft of nuance. Some old fashioned references will raise a smile but, on the evidence of this series opener, it's not exactly BBC2 prime-time material.