TV (p)review by Steve Bennett

We live in sensitive times, when comedians forever run the risk of being pilloried for a misconstrued joke taken out of context and broadcasters, not least the embattled BBC, quake at the prospect offending anyone.

Well, here comes another nail in the coffin of nuance, courtesy of the final pilot in the BBC Comedy Playhouse series, Stop/Start.

The seed of great comedy, or indeed drama, lies in the gap between what characters say and what they do, exposing hidden motives or comic hypocrisies.

But there's none of that nonsense in Stop/Start. The very premise is that the characters step out of the action to explain to the viewer exactly what they are thinking, spoon-feeding them the jokes and the narrative. Pah to subtext, to the writer's mantra to 'show don't tell', this is spelled out so even the simplest viewer will not be in any doubt about inner thoughts.

Voicing the inner monologue is not, of course, a revolutionary device. Peep Show did it explicitly, while Modern Family has cutaways to the characters being interviewed (by whom, it's best not to ask). Yet these shows use the technique to sneak in extra jokes - with Jack Doherty's Stop/Start script, the gag is so often the character explicitly explaining something... then that very thing at happening. Otherwise they feel like mid-level 'have you ever noticed?' stand-up routines shoehorned into the modest action.

The plot is very sitcommy, too, with its useless men and wives who are variously nagging, long-suffering or sexy – this is far from the Catastrophe world of credible problems and rounded personalities. 

The crux of this pilot is that Doherty's character Rob is so  bored with his moribund marriage and besotted by the hot neighbour that he accidentally says 'I love you' to her  in the speech he gives at his wedding anniversary party. Oopsie! Cue lots of stuttered excuses. Meanwhile, another shrewish wife (a very one-dimensional character for Miranda's Sarah Hadland) nags her husband (John Thomson) for forgetting to buy the yoghurt.

It's a great cast: Thomson as watchable as ever, Nigel Havers seems to relish being the ageing lothario worried about the age difference with his trophy wife (even though this can't hope match his performances with Brian Pern) – and whatever the script's failings this won't do any harm to Kerry Godliman's growing reputation as a subtle comic actor.

But the jokes, from the usually fine Doherty and based on his Radio 4 sitcom, feels sluggish and obvious, a few nifty turns of phrase notwithstanding. Of course being unsubtle is no barrier to big audiences – quite the opposite, as Mrs Brown's Boy and Citizen Khan have proved. So expect this to be the one of the Comedy Playhouses to be commissioned.

• Stop/Start is on BBC One at 10.35pm tonight.

Review date: 11 Mar 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett