COMEDY
THE OTHER ONE
BBC2, 10pm
The latest in a string of BBC comedy pilots, this one has an excellent cast and a premise that could have legs to take it into a whole series.
It starts with a surprise party for Colin (Simon Greenall) hosted by his wife Tess (Rebecca Front) and their daughter Catherine (Ellie White).
But Colin drops dead within moments of arriving, and Tess and Cathy soon discover he had another family living down the road.
Conveniently (and rather cleverly), Colin called his other daughter Catherine too. But Cat, played by Lauren Socha, couldn’t be more different from her new sister Cathy.
Cathy has a slightly pathetic fiancé, Marcus (Amit Shah), works in risk management and is “rattling through the seven stages of grief” rather efficiently. Cat works for Deliveroo (she sometimes gets to eat the leftovers) and has “completed Tinder”.
Downton’s Siobhan Finneran is sparkling as the chain smoking ‘other wife’ Marilyn, who loathes fresh air and has a mysterious health condition.
It’s not laugh out loud funny, but we’d happily welcome more of this charming and rather sweet sitcom.