TV review by Steve Bennett

Forget the long set-ups; the premise for Boy Meets Girl is established in six words before the credits roll: Two people on a date and the woman confides: ‘I was born with a penis…’ One reaction shot of the waiter later, and we’re under way…

BBC Two’s new sitcom has a genesis paved with pious intentions, born of a competition to seek ‘positive portrayals’ of transgender people – the sort of well-meaning but dry politically-correct affirmative action which might not seem entirely conducive to brilliant comedy.

Yet it transpires that Boy Meets Girl is rather a lovely romcom, with a tender heart and a lot of orbiting oddballs to provide the laughs. The groundbreaking aspects of the central relationship turn out to be incidental.

It starts a bit soap-like, not least because of the presence of Denise Welch as Pam, the overbearing, self-centred matriarch of the Macdonald family. When son Leo (Harry Hepple) loses his job, she wails: ‘Why do these things always happen to me!’ This is just the start of a memorable comic turn from the former Corrie actress, who has all the hallmarks of a comedy monster.

The first episode’s a bit heavy on exposition as the nice but socially awkward Leo and his brother, the cocky loser James (Jonny Dixon, playing it a bit like the Inbetweeners’ Jay) go out on the pull. It’s here Leo encounters Judy, and the subsequent date where she reveals her past – and he proves himself a nice guy, entirely accepting of the situation.

Much of the comedy, at least initially, comes not from the transgender aspect, but from the age difference between Leo, 26, and Judy, pushing 40. Leo is forever being mocked for dating such an antiquity. In the first couple of episodes, at least, the Macdonalds are kept in the dark about Judy’s past, so it’ll be interesting to see what a family whose relationships are founded on piss-taking will make of that.…

Judy’s family, meanwhile, comprise the deliciously dotty duo of mum Peggy, (Janine Duvitski) away in her own little world, and Jackie (Lizzy Roper), lascivious, worried about he weight. Sometimes they channel the Royle Family as they sit lazily on the sofa, but a more surreal version.

For this is, at heart, a warm comedy of Northern, working-class families, bound by blood despite their very peculiar eccentricities. It’s also a very female-driven one – apart from the archetypes of henpecked husband, mild-mannered nice guy and unselfconscious ladies’ man – it’s the women that are more interesting and funnier.

But they are all people you want to spend time with either because they are nice people (Leo, Judy) or because you want to see what madness they do next (Pam, Peggy, Janine). For that, Boy Meets Girl deserves to be a hit – not because it’s hitting any diversity quotas.

Review date: 3 Sep 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett