Ladies Of Letters

Maureen Lipman: My greatest mistake

Making her mum the butt of so many jokes is one of the few regrets that Maureen Lipman has after 43 years on the stage.

Competitive instincts between the elderly epistlers reach a rollicking crescendo in tonight's season finale. Their exchanges go from crabby sideswipe to venomous barrage in the click of a send button. As Irene (Maureen Lipman) returns to Blighty, the misunderstandings stack up, and Vera (Anne Reid) considers legal action against her pen pal for slander and alienation of her daughter Karen's affections. Happily, all is forgotten in preparing for Karen's forthcoming wedding to posh vet St John, and even though they bicker over the buffet (fork-and-finger versus coq au vin sit-down), it's Irene who succinctly, and touchingly, sums up the ties that bind these combative curmudgeons.

Vera and Irene continue to air their frustrations with their horrifically ungrateful offspring and assorted male inadequates. But their laptop laments reveal that Vera (Anne Reid) is having way more fun than her pen-pal. After she and granddaughter Sabrina befriend an exuberant African neighbour on their council estate, Vera starts to dress like Precious Ramotswe from The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. But Irene (Maureen Lipman), stranded Down Under, is "back washing towelling nappies after a 30-year gap". Homesick and resorting to poetry, her recital of Oh, To Be in England is simultaneously ridiculous and heartbreaking. It's a touching moment that shows the series' strength in depth. But Vera staves off any sentimentality with an unexpected tribute to tripe.

The buddies for whom life is one long senior moment find themselves bonded by babysitting, as Carole Hayman and Lou Wakefield's zesty comedy continues. Already rearing granddaughter Sabrina on her police no-go area of a trailer park, Vera is now lumbered with a neighbour's offspring. In some fetching sponge earmuffs and red jimjams, V makes light of the local disturbances. But it doesn't stop her having a near miss with a nail-gun when trying to attach planks to the window. Irene, meanwhile, dotes on Karen's newborn son, emails Vera some ineptly taken snaps of 'Baby Boy Small', and cunningly adapts one of V's capacious hand-me-downs. There's ingenious visual trickery and some sharp satirical barbs, while this week's malapropism prize goes to Irene for "effervacious".

The buddies for whom life is one long senior moment find themselves bonded by babysitting, as Carole Hayman and Lou Wakefield's zesty comedy continues. Already rearing granddaughter Sabrina on her police no-go area of a trailer park, Vera is now lumbered with a neighbour's offspring. In some fetching sponge earmuffs and red jimjams, V makes light of the local disturbances. But it doesn't stop her having a near miss with a nail-gun when trying to attach planks to the window. Irene, meanwhile, dotes on Karen's newborn son, emails Vera some ineptly taken snaps of 'Baby Boy Small', and cunningly adapts one of V's capacious hand-me-downs. There's ingenious visual trickery and some sharp satirical barbs, while this week's malapropism prize goes to Irene for "effervacious".

We love Irene's low-quality pictures of Karen's newborn son. There's so many good moments in this, you really should watch a bit of it. How good is Maureen Lipman? How good?

Banished to ITV3, stuck at 10pm then given a six-month mid-series break. Well done, ITV, for giving your classiest comedy drama such a fine chance at an audience. Well done indeed. Programming like that means that new controller Danny Cohen will have a breeze at BBC1.

Irene (Maureen Lipman) and Vera (Anne Reid) resume their barbed exchanges as this ultimately rather sweet comedy drama returns. This time, Irene has wound up in the Australian outback, while Vera's on the warpath to get custody of granddaughter Sabrina.

We've come a long way since the suburban simplicity of series one, but Vera (Anne Reid) and Irene (Maureen Lipman) haven't lost their knack for making mischief. So when Irene boasts about her new life in Australia, filled with fabulous weather, delicious wine and a handsome suitor, Vera suspects she's embellishing the truth just a little bit. Not that she has time to dwell on such matters, as her own happy existence at the trailer park is under threat. Selfish daughter Karen and Karen's offspring Sabrina look set to move in with her - methinks the nib of that fountain pen will come in for some heavy punishment.

The poison pen letters continue as Vera sends her dubious new associates round to Irene's and the latter thinks it prudent to make a precipitous visit to her relatives in Australia. Just because the format allows for all kinds of narrative silliness, doesn't mean the writers should take advantage. The ladies were really at the height of their powers when dusting their knick-knacks back in their unremarkable suburban homes. Now the action's transferred to the Outback and an inhospitable caravan park, too much happens to them and there's less time for their exquisite sniping.