Miriam dials down.. but her Bucket list has plenty of life

If you loved it when Miriam Margolyes took over on The Graham Norton Show or The Real Marigold Hotel, BBC Four has a treat for you hidden away on Thursday nights. Miriam is starring in Bucket,a sitcom about Mim, a terminally ill seventysomething mum, who is trying to establish a connection with her jobless and single 35-year-old daughter Fran via a bucket list. The first episode a fortnight ago was basically a platform for Miriam to behave like Miriam for half an hour. It would be a shame if that opening whirlwind put people off though. Since then she has toned it down considerably – and Bucket has turned into the sweetest comedy I’ve seen in years. It’s also laugh-outloud funny, with Mim usually getting all the best lines: “Love doesn’t last – unlike herpes.” I bet if Elton John was DEAD FUNNY Mim and Fran watching from his sickbed last night he would have appreciated the timing of “Sing a duet with Elton John” appearing on Mim’s list of things to do before she dies. Of course, no sitcom could survive an entire series of Miriam swearing, farting and flashing her boobs. Fortunately Frog Stone is brilliantly understated as Fran while Stephanie Beacham is the exact opposite as Mim’s smug cousin Pat. There’s only one episode left in this series but I have a feeling there might be more to come. One, because Mim’s list is quite long. And two, because she’s such an attention-seeker she is probably lying about dying anyway.