THE FAMILY PILE
ITV1, 9.30pm
As any lawyer will tell you, families all love each other until the will is read, and Brian Dooley’s sitcom delves into the rich territory of how bereavement can affect us. Set in Liverpool, it follows four sisters who have to sell their childhood home following their mother’s death, and in the process they revert back to familiar roles – the responsible one, the spoiled one, and so on – as old rivalries and newly discovered enmities rear their ugly heads. The sisters all carry some emotional baggage: Nicole (Amanda Abbington) is keen to move on after the bereavement, Yvette (Clare Calbraith) is single and unfussy about sleeping with married men, fitness-mad Ursula (Claire Keelan) is child- and friend-phobic, while the youngest, Gaynor (Alexandra Mardell), thinks the world revolves around her. Various children and partners – including Gaynor’s dim-witted husband, Greg (James Nelson-joyce) – complete the picture. It has a strong, personable cast and some smart lines, although much of the opener is broad brush. It’s made by the same producers of Derry Girls and Stuck, but (so far at least) hasn’t the effortlessly big laughs of the former or the nuance of the latter. All episodes are on ITVX. Veronica Lee