Madeleine's TV Week

The promise of a new British comedy drama is as exciting to me as the promise of presents at Christmas. Occasionally, though, you unwrap something that's a total lump of coal. Take Miranda, for example, which came all parcelled up nicely with the French and Saunders-accredited Miranda Hart, the kudos of lovely Sally Phillips as co-star, and the jolly good Monday night BBC2 slot. In gift terms, it was a great big funny-shaped sparkly package, with a massive bow on top.

Having opened it, I turned the gift over and over in my hands, trying to work out what I was holding, and with a fixed smile on my face so that everyone would be pleased that I liked it. Soon, though, once Miranda's asides to the camera had thoroughly worn me down with their utter cringeworthiness, and once I'd seen her drag a whole storyline out of accidentally wearing a dress designed for a pantomime dame to a date with an attractive man, my face fell, and I was left hoping that a receipt would fall out of the wrapping paper if I shook it hard enough.

Miranda is everything I hate about comedies I hate. Anything with a laughter track generally goes in the bin after five minutes. Anything with jokes about cross-dressing, anything with jokes about being ‘posh', anything featuring a female banging on about being female. I ought to have seen all this coming in Miranda. But she's tall and loud and respected, for some reason, and she got me all confused.

Also befuddling me a little this week is new comedy Cast Offs (Channel 4, Tue), which is being billed as ‘a ground-breaking comedy drama about six disabled people'. Tucked away at 11.05pm for its first episode and then quickly moving in with the second the following night at 11.15pm, it seems to be a bit afraid of itself, or worried that we the viewers might be afraid of it. Anyone seen a trailer? No, me neither. If I'm still on about presents, Cast Offs is the one that's a bit small and gets stuck under Miranda, constantly poked by baubles and drowned by pine needles.

But we all know that the smallest presents bear the most fruit - and Cast Offs does seem to be hiding something potentially interesting. It's a pretend reality show that's supposed to look and feel a bit like Survivor or Castaway, in which six people with disabilities have been thrown together on an island. It stars pretend disabled contestants, each with a different real disability, played by actors who actually have those disabilities. It's very fly-on-the-wall in structure and tone, but is, like The Thick Of It or The Office, clearly meticulously orchestrated to hit particular points of emotion and action in the scenes. Each of the six episodes homes in on one of the cast offs and we start with Dan, who is a quiet gentleman in a wheelchair. The action dots between the ‘now' on the island and the backstory of whichever character is the focus of the episode.

There is a definite hush surrounding this show, as though people aren't quite confident in heralding a funny show about disability. It will, of course, depend on whether the dialogue and action is funny in itself. It has to have substance and shouldn't just be applauded in a politically correct way if it isn't actually clever and funny. They've billed it as comedy, so it better have laughs. And I hope I'm allowed to laugh wherever I like.

Also launching this week is Mouth To Mouth (BBC3, Mon) which, like Cast Offs, gives each episode from the perspective of one character and features six characters. These six are twenty-somethings caught up in a celebrity-obsessed age. It's done in monologue form, and each episode covers the same period of time but from different perspectives, so the story of how the characters intertwine evolves over six episodes (ooh - it's what Collision should have been!). It sounds kooky and it's the format and the time-play that makes it different enough from Friends. Episode one is about Meeshell (my fingers really didn't enjoy typing that name), who is deciding whether or not to go for an audition for the talent show Fame Search. Trusting it won't paint a really dull and conventional picture of an apparent tribe of today's twenty-somethings who just go clubbin', sleep with each other and want to be famous, it could be good.

And finally, Gavin And Stacey returns for its third series this week (BBC1, Thurs). In the Christmas present stakes, Gavin And Stacey isn't just one of the presents, it's all the presents, plus all of those small chocolate decorations that hang from the tree. Sod it, it's the entire Christmas tree, actually, and more precisely, it's the moment you turn the tree lights on and the whole room lights up and makes everyone go ‘aahhh'. Oh! What's occuring in series 3? All the characters are returning, plus the baby, Neil (who is always known as ‘the baby, Neil' or ‘Neil, the baby'), and new character, Smithy's mum, played by Pam Ferris, a brilliant addition to the cast. We open on Cardiff, where Gav is now working and adjusting to life away from Essex and being surrounded by Welsh people. The Shipmans and Smiths pile in the car and head down the motorway for the baby's christening. Tidy.