Mouth To Mouth

This superb series of comedy monologues concludes with the characters who started out as the butt of the joke and the mysterious name on the mobile respectively, but have gradually grown into the centre of Karl Minns' intricately plotted love hexagon. The understated nature of this comedy is so different to BBC3's normal output that it seems to have gone under most people's radar: thankfully, the previous episodes with Meeshell, Tyler, Luke and Devine are still available on iPlayer for another 7 days. Thanks to the overlapping nature of each storyline, you can almost start watching with any episode - but do catch all six.

One of the more useful dichotomies of the age must be the brilliance of BBC4 and the tawdriness of BBC3, the best and worst of television respectively. I had thought Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps was the worst show on television, but it may be surpassed by Mouth to Mouth, of which there was a double bill. This show feature several decent actors reading an appalling script, which they relate directly to the camera (making you, the viewer, the second mouth - it's mouth to mouth, geddit?). In episode three last night, our hero revealed the trauma of being a lower-middle-class man negotiating episodes of football and erectile dysfunction. We had snapshot messages from friends of his, all of whom are afflicted with similarly vacuous dilemmas. It was like the film Human Traffic minus the clever observations. How on earth this sort of television can be defended, in the interest of promoting new talent, or advancing the cause of British scriptwriting and comedy, I will never know.

This series of monologues is growing richer by the episode. Overlapping in time, each episode is presented from the point of view of a different character with some of the others occasionally chipping in - but each time, we're shown that events as we know them are different when viewed through different eyes. Oh, and it's brilliantly funny as well.

This week Luke and Devine step into the limelight, with frank accounts of lives that aren't what they seem. Buff footballer Luke dreams of following in the footsteps of legendary striker Romeo Baptiste and is cock-a-hoop to be invited back to his pad, until the evening takes an unexpected turn. Luke's confession is peppered with funny asides from pals including ex-girlfriend Devine - a pious nurse who also has a bittersweet tale to tell. Once again, both monologues are beautifully written and splendidly acted, making this a treat of the kind seldom found on BBC3.

The first episode of Mouth to Mouth (BBC3), a series of comic monologues, centred on Meeshell, one half of a "two-girl girl band" called Cat's Eyes (a name her bandmate described as "a bit middle of the road"). The monologue format is a bit stilted but the writing is sharp and at times very funny, as when Meeshell is given a ring by her boyfriend. "If a man buys you bling out of the blue," she says, "most women would think, 'He's given me the clap.'"

Unlike much new comedy these days, this is one to watch.

In Mouth to Mouth an Essex-girl called Meeshell recounted dumping her best friend and her boyfriend to try to win a version of The X Factor. The level of humour of this illustrated monologue can be judged from the phonetic spelling of her name, by lines such as "I'm not age-a-list, I just don't want to smell piss when I sing" and by the writer Karl Minns' belief that spastic colons and testicular cancer are of themselves funny. His one-liners kept on coming, unfortunately. No sooner was her unbelievable whine over than we heard the story again from Meeshell's cynical ex-boyfriend Tyler in the second part of the double bill. Anna Nightingale as Meeshell and Alex Price as Tyler produced the sorts of trying-too-hard performances normally inflicted only on audition reels. Sadly, it will be a while before Minns is hailed as the next Alan Bennett.

Meeshell is a girl of our times. Obsessed by fame, convinced she's a dead good singer, she'll do anything to bag a No.1 single and a celebrity footballer boyfriend because 'they even smell famous'. And if this entails dumping your best friend and your boyfriend in front of an 8 million-strong TV audience, then so be it.

Welcome to Mouth To Mouth, a modern amorality tale that deconstructs the X Factor generation through a sextet of comic monologues told straight to camera. Subtle it isn't - Meeshell is a character only just this side of Catherine Tate caricature - but this bitter little drama of dreams dashed and friendships betrayed on the potholed road to talent-show glory makes a nifty companion piece to the ongoing travails of Jedward, Stacey, Joe and the rest.

Writer Karl Minns has littered his script with knowing pop references (Meshell on boyfriend Tyler: 'We're like the Ting Tings - he presses all the buttons at the back and I get all the glory') and it's that sharp voice that gives Mouth To Mouth its pout. Meeshell may seem like a typical airhead but behind the pink fluff there's a soul of steel. Slacker Tyler looks for all the world a loser but he's not above a kiss-and-tell when the price is right.

Whether Mouth To Mouth's concept can stand four more episodes - the same tale spun out through the eyes of all the players - remains to be seen. But I'm hopeful of seeing a snatch of Fame Search, the show that propelled Meeshell to her YouTube moment of loved-one dumping fame. 'A girl group won,' our heroine noted bitterly. 'One lezza, one bi, one straight. Called Threeway. Bit gimmicky.' Louis Walsh is on the phone already.

Last Night's TV - Mouth to Mouth

I'm not sure what to make of this new BBC3 comedy; on the one hand, writer Karl Minns is certainly capable of extreme funniness, but I'm not sure the format or the characters worked.

A multifaceted take on the lives of six friends in their early 20s, all fumbling and crashing through life. Each episode covers the same time period, and the story is told talking heads-style from different characters' viewpoints, without you ever seeing the action. The first one features Shell, who's got big dreams for her girl band, and as she finally gets offered her dream audition, the varying perspectives from her friends overlap to reinforce the fact that things aren't always as they seem. Episode two follows, which should help make the format clearer.

We first met wannabe pop star Meeshell last year in a pilot that neatly mixed gags with pathos, as she gazed into the camera and bared her soul. Now Meeshell and a ragbag of mates return for a series, with each taking centre-stage for one episode. In tonight's double bill we hear more about Meeshell's girl band Cat's Eyes - "we're going to be more bigger than Girls Aloud" - bikini-waxing tips and secret heartaches, before moving on to her directionless, dope-smoking boyfriend Tyler. Witty and touching by turns, it's Alan Bennett's Talking Heads for the noughties.