BBC4 veers out of its elegantly upholstered bandwidth and into that of little bro BBC3, with this edge-free but fitfully charming new sitcom set in a hairdresser's. Consummate comedian Doon Mackichan is the demented mother hen, heading a brood of gently dysfunctional tropes. It has a regional theatre feel to it, with all the slack timing and weirdly comforting lack of fashion that entails, but there are some nice lines, particularly when Mackichan reads emotions into sets of breast implants: "Arrogant ... pensive ... regretful somehow."

A skewed new sitcom by Georgia Pritchett, who wrote Life of Riley for BBC1 but is in much saltier, funnier form here. Doon Mackichan is Sue, proprietor of a hair salon where the staff struggle to focus on cutting barnets properly. Foolhardy customers come and go, mostly playing stooges as chaos sets in. The scattergun style and lines like "You just frittered away my boobs on a giant chipmunk" could easily lead to a lack of warm authenticity, but don't: the gang feels real. Tonight, Sue hoovers some Mexican tranquillisers, a comic short cut Mackichan brilliantly exploits.

A hairdresser-comedy from the writer of Life of Riley? Quick Cuts is by no means as bad as that suggests, but nor is it as good as it ought to be. As Desmond's and Cutting It have shown, there's no shortage of potential for laughter or melodrama in a salon, but a combination of peculiar editing and floppy, semi-improvised dialogue mean Quick Cuts takes too long to find its comedic or dramatic rhythm, cutting a decent cast (including Doon Mackichan as the loose cannon proprietor) adrift.

But, once the painstakingly set-up scenarios (blind dates, theft, prescription drug abuse) start to pay off, the performances warm up and the lines get funnier - one customer likens a sexual encounter to 'a seal trying to stay on a rock'. There's still some promise here, but it's a very uneven opener.

Let's face it, it's not exactly a golden age for British sitcoms. So when a half-indecent one stumbles along, let's hope it's given time to grow.

As Plebs bowed out last night, I found myself hoping this wasn't the last we'd seen of Shredder, Copier and Water Boy ('Man! Water Man!').

Though the closing episode, Saturnalia, didn't have anything to match my favourite moment of the series - Doon Mackichan downing a banana - it did leave the door gaping open for a second run as the hapless Marcus (aka Copier) still hadn't bagged himself any Cynthia action. You feel for the boy, you really do.

That's down to Tom Rosenthal's endearing turn as Marcus, which started off dangerously close to Inbetweener Will but has happily grown to fill out his own tunic.

Marcus could come off as a whiny whinger but Rosenthal's everyman likeability makes you root for him. With Joel Fry's Stylax, he turns Plebs into a (funny) spin on Two And A Half Men. Only with a short bloke (Ryan Sampson's terrific slave Grumio) instead of a fat kid.

While Plebs hasn't quite lived up to the hype, it's no fault of the superb supporting cast. In particular, it's a pleasure to see Smack the Pony's Doon Mackichan playing Stylax's sex-crazed boss. A virtuoso of the double entendre and salacious glance, she takes suggestiveness to a whole new level when Stylax innocently offers her a bite of an exotic new fruit: "bananae". It's just one of many banana jokes; it may be a while before you can look at your lunchbox without blushing.

Plebs focuses on three no-hopers in the form of office boys Marcus (Tom Rosenthal) and Stylax (Joel Fry) and their slave Grumio (Ryan Sampson). Marcus is a bit of a dreamer and when an attractive new neighbour Cynthia (Sophie Colquhoun) enters his life he falls head over heels in love. The only problem is that Stylax wants them both to go to an orgy and that means trying to convince Cynthia to come with them.

Cue a lot of comic misunderstanding, awkward silences and a very kinky cage game. I believe Plebs was conceived when someone said 'why don't we try and make an Ancient Rome version of The Inbetweeners.' Plebs is filled with the crude humour and obvious jokes that you would expect from an ITV2 sitcom. As much as I like Tom Rosenthal he has been saddled with playing 'the awkward one' which means he has to make a lot of sad faces when Cynthia goes off with another man. Meanwhile Joel Fry, who is so great in Trollied, is the 'horny one' and is always trying to get off with someone while avoiding the advances of his boss (Doon Mackichan). In fact the best performance comes from Ryan Sampson as the bewildered Northern slave Grumio who is forced to route through the bins to find food for his two masters.

While Plebs isn't awful it still felt like a sitcom that was developed with a key demographic in mind rather than just simply created by a talented scriptwriter. In fact, while the state of British drama seems to be very healthy indeed, I don't think there's been one really good UK sitcom since the start of the year.

Doon Mackichan interview

An interview with the comedian and comic actress Doon Mackichan.

Plebs is a bit like the spawn of The Inbetweeners and Up Pompeii, but set in ancient Rome to a soundtrack of ska classics, presumably for added anachronism. Friday Night Dinner's Tom Rosenthal is neurotic, uptight Marcus, Trollied's Joel Fry plays dufus Stylax, and Ryan Sampson is their dull-witted Manc slave Grumio, while Doon Mackichan adds class as the boys' ruthless boss Flavia. The first instalment finds them trading their grocery budget for orgy tickets, while Danny Dyer, of all people, turns up as gladiator Cassius in episode two.

More Horrible Histories than Up Pompeii!, this tunic-and-sandals sitcom pitches 21st-century sensibilities into the streets of Ancient Rome for a forum full of fun with ordinary blokes Marcus and Stylax, a pair serviced by grumbling slave Grumio. In the double-episode opener, Tom Rosenthal's Marcus - think The Inbetweeners' Will - is throwing himself at glamorous new neighbour Cynthia (Sophie Colquhoun), while Ryan Sampson's Grumio (Baldrick, by any other name) is in a grump over dog poo. Add in Doon Mackichan as whip-cracking boss Flavia, whose idea of disciplining her workforce is inviting herself along to an orgy, and it's a saucy dollop of fun.