Switch

Switch is a comedy drama on a digital channel which has its work cut out. Mainly because it is on IIV2, which is quite possibly the worst TV channel in the country.

Switch is a supernatural comedy about a coven of four 20-something witches living in Camden. Each of the four witches, physiotherapist Grace (Phoebe Fox), travel loving Hannah (Hannah Tointon), fiery fashionista Jude (Nina Toussiant-White) and overworked Stella (Lacey Turner), each have their own problems - whether it is love, family relations or work - so not surprisingly they often end up using their magic to try and improve their lot, and more often than not it backfires.

In terms of laughs, it's somewhat thin on the ground. While the team behind the series have good experience with this kind of format (the show is made by the team who did Being Human), it all felt a bit thin. Part of the problem, I think, is that it's not in the right time slot. The target audience appears to be young women and girls, so why not make the show pre-watershed so that it could reach a bigger audience - and hopefully Switch would benefit from that.

The older actors, the authority figures in Switch, were the funniest - including Grace's old fashioned mother played by Caroline Quentin. There were also some good laughs from Stella's horrid boss Janet (Amanda Drew), who's placed under a spell to make her lose her short-term memory; but in the end makes her forget several decades. Good stuff.

There's one or two positive moments in Switch, but by and large it was a disappointment. That said, I think I'd recommend anyone reading this to watch Switch for two main reasons. Firstly (since just about everything else on the channel is rubbish), it's the best show currently on ITV2. By watching it, we might just encourage the executives at the network to buck up their ideas.

And secondly, as I mentioned before, the show is mostly targeted at young women. This is how Switch should be marketed. Forget the witches or merchandising. Just say that this is the show that could make Jeremy Clarkson's eyes bleed and you could well end up with a big hit.

Switch: Series 1 Episode 2 review

You definitely have to be in a certain state of mind to draw full enjoyment out of ITV2's Switch. That state of mind is probably 'just finished texting your BFF about a guy you fancy and sinking your second glass of Lambrini'.

ITV2's new comedy drama Switch follows the romantic and magical misadventures of Stella, Jude, Grace and Hannah - four twentysomething, flat sharing female witches in super-trendy Camden Lock, north London.

This self-styled Camden coven shrieks, hugs, banters and occasionally casts spells to help each other out, such as bringing an accidentally microwaved cat back to life, erasing the inconvenient short-term memory of an unpleasant employer or simply placing romantic enchantments on young men they like the look of.

All the coven needs is a makeshift cauldron, a suitable spell, objects representing the four elements, and each other. "We don't have anything for air," exclaims one of the girls at an impromptu - and extremely hurried - spell cast.

At which point I have to confess to the uncharitable thought that they could always try sticking their heads into the mixture.

Switch is okay, but it could have been so much more fun if it had featured four diverse and interesting leads, rather than the bland, boring, antiseptic and homogenous refugees from a tampon advert offered up here. The cast is fine, but the script is so thin on characterisation that hardly a single personality can be scraped together between the four of them.

They even share the same body shape, as though any deviation from the supposedly acceptable, attractive norm would send the potential young male audience fleeing in disgust and horror at the deviance of it all. Most disappointing, none of the leads is written to be remotely funny. The most the programme allows them to be is frothy or scatty, which is frankly irritating.

As if to prove the point, Caroline Quentin was introduced halfway through episode one as the overbearing, overprotective mother of youngest witch Grace. The involvement of a character with a bit more flesh, figuratively and literally, lifted the show immediately. The trailer for episode two also promised some added unpleasantness in the form of a rival coven from Kensington - all sneers and snotty attitude - who would appear to offer the interesting edge our Camden quartet is sadly lacking. So Switch might yet be worth persevering with.

Switch episode 1 review

It doesn't aim to be great art, and it might not win any industry awards, but it's an entertaining throwback to the whimsical TV of the eighties and nineties.

Switch Episode 1 review

With the mix of romance, work and magic there's a feel to the show that can best be described as 'hex and the city'. Though there aren't as many jokes as the show thinks there is, the ones that are present land well.

Four modern young witches share a house in Camden, north London in this new supernatural comedy-drama. Former EastEnder Lacey Turner stars and Caroline Quentin plays one of the witches' overprotective mums. They struggle to juggle their advertising/physiotherapy careers with being both magic and beautiful. Of course, the Camden witches have a feud going with some posh ones from west London. It's not at all sophisticated or layered in a Buffy way but decent fluff nevertheless.

Switch features four chums (Lacey Turner, Hannah Tointon, Nina Toussaint-White and Phoebe Fox) who with a bucket and a seemingly endless supply of feathers can turn back time, resurrect the dead (well, a cat) and use witchcraft to sort out their romantic lives. From the writers of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, it's sort of an anglicised Charmed.

Invariably, the spells don't quite work, and the hoops the girls go through to get out of trouble form the heart of the drama. It's all a little breathless - Caroline Quentin plays it larger than life as an über-earth mothery witch - and the London Borough of Camden must be overjoyed at the free publicity. But the episode ends with a neat touch of acid to temper the jollity.

A comedy drama about witches in contemporary Camden. Could this be what television has been missing? This new series from the makers of Being Human follows a coven of twentysomethings whose traditional spell-casting is interspersed with the pesky trivialities of modern life: from mobile ringtone interruptions to the lack of a non-stick saucepan during a particularly sticky spell. The resulting brew is light and fluffy, more Sabrina the Teenage Witch than Charmed, with meddling mums and nasty bosses the biggest problems at hand and not a sliver of darkness in sight. In fact, it's almost too bright and shiny, with former EastEnder Lacey Turner's talents wasted on slightly limp dialogue. But it's gentle fun: there's enough tongue in cheek to suggest it could find the teen following it's clearly aiming for.

Switch review

I get the impression that Switch wants to make itself edgy by including a lot of casual swearing and some scenes of a sexual nature however it's confusing as many of the storylines are seemingly be aimed at younger viewers.

TV review: ITV2's Switch is a bewitching drama

ITV2 drama Switch - about a coven of witches living in Camden - shows a great deal of promise.