Kathy Burke

Gimme Gimme Gimme (BBC2, Friday) is a new sitcom by Jonathan Harvey starring two first-class performers, the award-winning Kathy Burke and James Dreyfus [...] It's early days yet, and I would venture to say that the lead characters need to settle down in their relationship. Some of the bashing and whacking each other is a bit frenzied and unconvincing. But there were lots of good bits: I liked their inability to resist getting drunk in the middle of the afternoon (I hope that's a runner) and playing silly kiddy games, like pretending to be in Casualty and The Bill.

Common as Muck (BBC1) ended not so much with a bang as a fusillade. [...] The cast was so strong you got the impression of admirable actors, all jammed in a revolving door, which threw one at every episode. It was very much [g=6179]a man's story, cemented with matiness. For that reason I particularly admired Kathy Burke's shining performance as Sharon.