Moving Wallpaper

Back for a new series, Moving Wallpaper is joyously and uproariously funny. Its companion piece, the soap opera Echo Beach, has been axed because the fictional head of ITV drama (played by Raquel Cassidy) said: "It was shit and no one watched it." Faced with the prospect of unemployment, the unhinged producer (Ben Miller) turns to the writer for inspiration.

Having lectured him on the realities of the marketplace ("It's the Simon Cowell era! You either hitch up those trousers and get on board or you ship on out!") he proceeds to kill him, stuff him in the lavatory and steal his idea. At ITV, this creative process is known as banging heads against a wall, blue-sky thinking, running things up flagpoles and shaking dramatic trees. And the idea for the pilot, which will star Kelly Brook, is about zombies. Rarely are viewers given such a privileged insight into the workings of television.

Kelly Brook may have been axed as a Britain's Got Talent judge but she's the star turn in this comedy about goings-on behind the scenes of a soap.

Actually, the soap, Echo Beach, has been axed and Jonathan Pope, played brilliantly by Ben Miller, has to come up with another idea or will lose his job.

His long-suffering boss is still watching over him sarcastically but, by chance, he stumbles upon Kelly Brook. Can he get her to star in his new venture?

Ben Miller is joined by Kelly Brook and Alan Dale as the comedy set in a TV production company returns.

Last time we saw smarmy TV exec Jonathan Pope, he was waiting to hear if ITV was going to give dreary Cornish soap Echo Beach a second series. Unsurprisingly, the answer was a resounding no - but that's not the end for Pope's put-upon team as they've been asked to helm a zombie-horror series starring Jim Robinson and Kelly Brook. Top-notch satire.

The addictive postmodern parody of the TV producer's world returns tonight, with Echo Beach having been ditched ("it was s*** and no one watched it" declares the knowing script) and with a sense of desperation pervading the office of the callous Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller). After some sublime verbal tennis between the Pope and the icy Head of ITV Drama (Raquel Cassidy), and one ridiculous twist of fate, the gang start work on a new proposition - a bizarre zombie drama called Renaissance. Based on this sizzling start, it looks like Moving Wallpaper will do a fine job flying solo.

At some point last year, ITV started making some good decisions. Classy dramas got made and a load of rubbish got dropped. Someone noticed that this Ben Miller sitcom about the making of a soap was funny, but the novelty idea of having an actual soap (Echo Beach) as a companion piece was rubbish. So Echo Beach got dumped and MW remains. Happily so, as the second series kicks off in excellent form. Egomaniac Jonathan Pope is about to be kicked out of ITV drama following the flop of Echo Beach but finds a clause in his contract: he is allowed to make a pilot before they can fire him. There's good in-jokes, character comedy, well handled farce and a decent support cast (Kelly Brook excluded). James Lance, by the way, is ever brilliant.

Last year's Moving Wallpaper, was - I thought - a very sharply written and cleverly characterised comedy about a TV company making a crummy soap opera, Echo Beach. Unfortunately the Echo Beach bits were genuinely dreadful, uneasily strung between self-parody and unabashed tackiness.

Now Echo Beach has been ditched, which is fine because Moving Wallpaper is more than capable of standing on its own. As well as having a wonderful deadpan performance by Ben Miller as a vile yet strangely sympathetic director, the first half of last Friday's opener was one of the best constructed pieces of comedy writing I have seen in years - each set-up dovetailing into another with great verve and ingenuity.

And the second half, you may, not unreasonably, wonder? That was pretty damn good too.

ITV did some strange things last year, but surely none stranger than broadcasting a tacky soap opera called Echo Beach, immediately preceeded each week by a sitcom, Moving Wallpaper, about a gaggle of television producers making a tacky soap opera called Echo Beach. This year, Moving Wallpaper is back; Echo Beach is not. As Moving Wallpaper's lead character Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller) puts it, "We've been cancelled. Echo Beach is no more. The network executive said it was ---- and no one watched it." Which is, it's fair to say, what happened in reality too. Woo, post-modern. Anyway, the task for Pope and his production team now is to dream up a new programme to make; Pope begins the process by bullying a scriptwriter, unwittingly causes his death, then steals his idea. As a satire about television's dearth of originality and integrity, Moving Wallpaper would work better if it weren't itself an inferior version of somebody else's good idea: it's essentially a market-stall knock-off of I'm Alan Partridge.

Last time around, you may recall, this came as part of a Friday night double-header: Moving Wallpaper, a show about the making of a show, followed by Echo Beach, the show that the show about the making of a show was about. If you, er, get my drift.

Anyway, my point is it's not a double-wotsit anymore, because while Moving Wallpaper, a comedy-drama starring Ben Miller as egocentric producer Jonathan Pope, was top entertainment, the soapy Echo Beach was just plain daft. And while that was the point of the gag, it hardly merited 30 minutes airtime of its own.

Anyway, we return to find Pope desperately trying to cling on to his job by producing a pilot for a zombie drama called Renaissance - for which he's casting Kelly Brook as his leading lady.

So Echo Beach is no more. But it's better, cleverer, funnier half returns with producer Jonathan Pope explaining to his team of writers exactly why it was cancelled. "It was s*** and nobody watched it."

I couldn't have put it better myself - and a big part of what makes this series so good is its callous, unrose-tinted view of TV from the inside looking out.

By a series of events too ludicrous to explain, series two sees Jonathan put at the helm of a brand new drama pilot about zombies.

His writers reckon this is a terrible idea. They point out that ITV has never made a zombie drama before - even though the success of films like Shaun Of The Dead and 28 Days Later suggest the network should really think about producing more zombie shows - not less.

In any event, as the old Echo Beach signage is quickly painted over and replaced by the new logo for Renaissance, competing writers Tom and Carl look set to live through their lead characters by naming them Tim and Kyle.

But Moving Wallpaper is still absolutely the Jonathan Pope show. Thanks to writer Tony Jordan giving him all the best lines and Ben Miller's brilliantly spiky performance, Pope is one of those appalling, self-serving characters who absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as David Brent and Basil Fawlty.

His trump card tonight sees him signing up his first cast member - Kelly Brook. And to think people laughed at Jason Donovan.

Like 30 Rock and the much-missed Studio 60..., Moving Wallpaper is a hard sell to a mass audience, despite the fact that it's sharp, funny and very watchable. It's just sharp and funny about the business of making TV, which non-media smug types find about as entertaining as Parents Of The Band. Shame - but this retooled second series stands a better chance of succeeding, freed as it is from the albatross of Echo Beach. This time, outrageous TV producer Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller) is tasked with siring a pilot for a zombie series - starring Kelly Brook and Alan Dale. Brilliant! Highly recommended.