Thoughts from the Bus Stop

This Christmas I'll be digging out my tape of the first series of Love Soup, which I really enjoyed. Tamsin Greig never misses, does she? Black Books, Green Wing, and now this gorgeous, gentle, clever, witty stuff. Lovely.

It's difficult to describe why it works so well, but it's wonderful. It's not 'laugh out loud' stuff, but consistently funny, well-observed and engaging. It helps of course that I identify strongly with Greig's character, Alice - a single woman, not a stunner but OK looking, thinks too much about everything, prone to feeling faintly ridiculous, and often bewildered by how the world works. (And she lives in Brighton! In Furze Croft, where I once viewed a flat.)

The writer, David Renwick, wrote Jonathan Creek, which I was totally hooked on in the early days (before Caroline Quentin was replaced by Julia Sawalha and all the chemistry disappeared - textbook example of the Joey Tribbiani theory of on-screen sexual chemistry - Alan Davies and Ms Sawalha being an item off screen). Just as in Jonathan Creek, Renwick creates tantalising red herrings and sets up jokes whose subtle punchlines - verbal or visible - are always worth waiting for. I can't wait for series 2.

The Guardian: Five million take first spoonful of Love Soup
The Guardian: Tamsin Greig: Knowing me, knowing you
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