The Other One (2017)

The Other One is a tender sitcom about the absurdities of family life

Cathy and Cat are back on BBC One - and one of them has just kissed their secret brother.

The Other One, Holly Walsh's gleeful twin-family saga ended (if you've been watching in real time) on a real high. It had many terrific lines, mainly - as usual - from Ellie White as Cathy, whom you suspect the writer most identifies with. One clue: she gives her the sharpest lines. After she has been given a particularly gaudy tiara-and-mascara makeover by Cat (Lauren Socha), dowdy safe Cathy declares to the mirror: "Oh My God! I love it... I look like I could have my own show! On ITV3!" Marilyn (Siobhan Finneran) finally makes it out of the house, Rebecca Front's Tess finally forgives cheating Colin (Simon Greenall) and, after a cheeky red herring, the stage is well set for a second series. There have been harder recommissions to predict.

The Other One heads to America on Acorn TV

Streaming service Acorn TV, part of AMC Networks, has brought the rights to the seven-part series, which it will broadcast in the US, Canada and Mexico next month.

TV review: The Other One series 1 episode 1

How well you get on with The Other One will depend on your tolerance for cringe factor.

TV review: The Other One

Despite all the jokes about class, Marcus's disastrous 'dick pics' disaster and the essential betrayal at the heart of the Walcott's marriage, there's a real sweetness to the developing relationship between the two Catherines which makes this a joy to watch.

The Other One review

Class-clash comedy puts the fizz up family life.

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In September 2017, I wrote that The Other One was a BBC comedy pilot in search of a commission: it gained that commission and returned this week - albeit with the rerun pilot (boo), but over the next six weeks it will delight and enthral with high humour and low blows from writers Holly Walsh and Pippa Brown. The only true mystery is why the fandoodle it took so long.

It is a glorious slice-of-life comedy, way superior to so much else on these days. OK, the plot is a twitch forced - bigamist dies, leaving two disparate families, in two utterly disparate class zones - but the warmth of all within, the sharpness of the writing, the performances, particularly from Ellie White as the smiling uptight coil of a spring who can't quite leave a middle-class totem untouched and Lauren Socha as the unsprung spring who can't quite leave a working-class totem unsaid... in this will lie a certain dramatic magic.

The Other One review

While there are some very broad gags to flag up the differences between the two families, there are some subtler observations too: Marilyn isn't just a chain smoker, but she lights up in Cathy's car without asking first and Cathy, while agonised, is too polite to ask her to stop.