Love Matters

Two sitcom one-offs launch another Sky comedy season of new work. The first, called "30 And Counting", features two friends trying to help their broken-hearted chum get an internet date and feels a little old-fashioned. At 9.30pm, the second - "Officially Special" - is lifted by Katherine Parkinson's central performance (as a world records official with a crap love life), and some pretty good writing. Miss Wright (starring and co-written by Isy Suttie) is the stand-out of the series. Look out for that on 4 April.

A kind of Weird Science for the internet generation, 30 And Counting kicks off the promising Love Matters series of six original one-off comedies covering all facets of the relationship game. The first double bill opens tonight with mates Matt (Dan Clark) and Jason (Brett Goldstein) constructing a computer-generated perfect woman with the goal of cheering up unlucky-in-love buddy George (Daniel Lawrence Taylor). Cue amorous carnage. The second tale, "Officially Special", stars The IT Crowd's marvellous Katherine Parkinson as a bored records adjudicator fearful that life is passing her by. She's somewhat nonplussed when her boyfriend takes her up the London Eye. And no, that's not a euphemism...

The first of six half-hour comedies about the ugly business of relationships introduces a lonely 30-something with a bad habit of squawking at bus drivers. His best mates - also unhappily single - sign him up to an online dating site, with predictably catastrophic results.

Far funnier is number two: Katherine Parkinson plays the head of the miscellaneous department at Brewster's World Records (geddit?) who daydreams and spars with colleagues, blissfully oblivious to the fact that her soppy boyfriend has a surprise planned. Let's hope this lady gets a series of her own.

Sky continues to champion the short comedy with three sweet-and-sour double bills on the awkward business of modern romance. First up at 9pm is 30 and Counting, a romcom examining online dating through the eyes of hapless singleton George (Daniel Lawrence Taylor, aka Geoff from Hunderby). It's a little broad and uneven, but a couple of virtuoso set-pieces really impress, as George's mates create his ideal virtual girlfriend, and then reluctantly kill her off while the outro from Layla plays.

The formidably funny Katherine Parkinson then takes the lead in Officially Special at 9.30pm, playing Jo, a judge of world record attempts, whose work problems take her eye off her partner, busily planning a surprise. Said surprise is realised in excruciating fashion, and the show has enough smart observations to make about Jo's commitmentphobia to override a few clunkers (gags about a girl called 'Fanny'?).

With a bit more polish to the scripts, we could see either making a series. And no other broadcaster has shown such consistent willingness (or, probably, budgetary capability) to take a chance on under appreciated talent. This, more than anything, makes Love Matters, well, matter.

Sanjeev Kohli writes sitcom based on search for love

Kohli says the blind date experiences of his teens and early 20s inspired the scripts for A Nice Arrangement, which will be shown on Sky Living in February.