With Miriam Margolyes on the checkout, you would think this supermarket comedy would be funny, but despite a strong ensemble cast, Trollied is still short-changing viewers in the laughs department. Samuel Anderson is great as the exasperated boss battling his way through first-aid training, as Brian (Stephen Tompkinson) spouts David Brent-esque words of wisdom. Elsewhere, Neville (Dominic Coleman) is desperate to stand up to his evil ex-wife, and when Linda (Faye McKeever) gets involved it produces moderately slapstick results.

It's The Office meets ASDA and it stars Jane Horrocks - as acting deputy manager Julie at Valco, a northern supermarket.

The art department has done a cracking job too - it looks absolutely bang-on, even though thanks to the magic of television, it was all filmed in a Bristol studio - in other words nowhere near "the north".

Plus it's full of left-over folk from Corrie - like Rita May who plays the very lovely and slightly dotty Margaret, who's got her very first job thanks to Valco's policy of employing older members of staff.

Mark Addy's in it too, behind the butcher counter and there's a nice Tim 'n' Dawn style romance between check-out girl Katie (Chanel Cresswell) and butcher's assistant Kieran (Nick Blood).

The second episode tonight is better than the first one, as the real assistant manager (another ex-Corrie star Rachel Leskovac) comes back to work to show everyone her new baby daughter.

She's popular, relaxed and genuinely well liked - all the things that bossy, ambitious Julie isn't, but would kill to be.

Actually, Jane Horrocks is the least good thing about this series - she's just not awful or deluded enough to be another David Brent, plus she's doing it all in a northern version of the posh voice she used in the Tesco ads.

For my money, the best characters are Sue and Linda (Lorraine Cheshire and Faye McKeever) - a buy-one-get-one-free double act who have some splendidly dirty jokes.

Got the post-holiday September blues? Then can I recommend a new TV double act to put a smile on your face? Along with the rest of the cast who star in upcoming BBC3 Manchester comedy series Massive.

Ralf Little and Carl Rice play Danny and Seamus, best mates since they bonded over Oasis in 1994. The on screen chemistry between Ralf and Carl gives the six-part series a head start.

The first two episodes are not to be missed. Just some of the delights include Johnny Vegas as Shay's petty criminal dad Tony. Plus Beverly Rudd and Faye McKeever as Droylsden bun-shop divas HearKittyKitty.

Created and written by Damian Lanigan, Massive is yet another burst of fresh air from BBC Comedy North.

We were bemused at the offhand treatment dished out to the star act in new BBC3 comedy Massive at the show's launch, a pair of overweight female singers called HearKittyKitty (played by a menacing Beverley Rudd and Faye McKeever)... The pair, who at times push the men to the edge of the action, were initially given no role at the all-male press briefing lineup that followed the screening.

And perhaps that is the fatal flaw of this new wave of sitcoms, led by Peep Show. They seem to treat women as Beryl Cook-style, hard-drinking grotesques, and have very little warmth at their core. Is there a lesson, perhaps, in the fact that Johnny Vegas has found ITV1 stardom in Benidorm, an ensemble piece with a heart, and similarly Gavin & Stacey has won a place in the nation's affections?