Home Time

Everyone says new comedies should be allowed a few episodes to bed down, though I've never understood why - who has the time to stick with something just in case it gets better? Which brings us to Home Time, from the Baby Cow stable that brought you Gavin & Stacey. It's an odd one - strangely flat and with a very irritating central character: a woman who left Coventry for London aged 17 and returns 12 years later to live with her parents. Her room hasn't changed, the East 17 poster is still on the wall and Oasis are still in the CD player. And her parents still treat her as if she's a wayward teenager. Most of her friends have stayed trapped in a 1997 time warp. Despite its shortcomings, there's a germ of something in Home Time that could turn out to be quite good, if you do have time to stay with it. There are some funny lines and writers Emma Fryer and Neil Edmond have captured the horrors of going back to an old life. But it should have been tried out on BBC3 first.

This promising new sitcom comes from Baby Cow - the same company that gave us Gavin & Stacey. And on the strength of this first episode it deserves the same kind of success.

Emma Fryer (who co-wrote it with her mate Neil Edmond) stars as 29-year-old Gaynor Jacks. Gaynor left her home in Coventry just days before her 18th birthday for the bright lights of London. Now, 12 years later, she's come back to her home town with her tail between her legs - to face the smothering, over-protective love of her mum and dad and the wrath of her three former best mates.

They're furious with her for leaving without a word and also resentful of the notion that London might possibly offer anything you can't get in Coventry. It's the sort of understated, subtle and very clever comedy that you really need to discover for yourself.

And, like Pulling and Getting On, it's a joy to see another sitcom about real women.

New BBC sitcom following a twenty something woman who moves back home with her parents. We all fly the coop with lofty ambitions - but what if you return home with your dreams in tatters? This new (virtually all-female) sitcom should reveal all, as 29-year-old Gaynor moves back with her folks and then struggles to reconnect with her snarky childhood pals... It's Home to Roost meets Pulling.

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.

There's something wonderful struggling to emerge in this new comedy with Emma Fryer as Gaynor, a washed-up 30 year-old returning to the home town she fled with high ambitions when she was 18. It's a great premise and even if much of the humour feels more adolescent than adult there's still plenty to enjoy in it.

The way Gavin And Stacey worked was by fusing together mainstream humour and the traditional sitcom set-up with a fresh and original scenario and a few gently subversive undercurrents. If anything Home Time pushes the boat out even further.

I'm pleased to report that Home Time could well be a winner. Her friends are fun and stupid, it's got that same colloquial feel as Gavin & Stacey (substitute Barry Island for Coventry), and there's plenty of little Cov phrases and sayings. I'm not saying that these phrases like 'bab' will become as popular as 'what's occurring', but this has potential.

It's not laugh-out-loud funny all the time, and I do wonder whether it has the mainstream appeal. But it has potential, real potential. Some lovely sight gags, and some of the same, warm humour as G&S, but, judging by the first episode, more of an edge.