The longer it goes on, the more Reggie Perrin feels like a sad, slightly surreal drama that's become trapped in the body of an old-fashioned sitcom. Martin Clunes manages to hide the joins by making the most embittered, world-weary lines come across as faintly lovable: "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly," muses Reggie in tonight's instalment, "Modern man gotta eat his own entrails." It's one of several lines that jump out at you. Reggie's experiment with bailing out of his misery-inducing career isn't going well: "That's the trouble with living for the moment, isn't it?" he observes. "It b****rs up the next moment." His version of living for the moment involves oil painting, therapy (with daffy Sue from Groomtech) and baking bread. Meanwhile, at Groomtech, changes are afoot, giving Jim Howick as Anthony a chance to shine.

"What a guy!" says Anthony (Jim Howick) of Martin Clunes's curmudgeonly yet likeable character, Reggie Perrin, in tonight's penultimate episode of the series. As Reggie takes up cycling to work, his marriage with his perennially preoccupied wife continues to feel the strain in this improving sitcom remake.