Robert Weide, producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm, is the unlikely writer and director of this new comedy set in Watford in the late 1960s. Nick Frost stars as the accountant whose drab world is anything but swinging. He's lost his wife (Olivia Colman) and mislaid his self-esteem, leaving him trying to piece together his life.

Botched suicide attempts pop up a lot in films and TV and, here, the man putting his head in the noose and kicking away the stool is Jeremy Sloane, who has lost his job and his wife all in the same day.

Coincidentally, a similar event also opens the sitcom Uncle, which starts its terrestrial re-run on BBC One tonight.

But fate has other plans for Jeremy in this six-part comedy series specially created for actor Nick Frost by Curb Your Enthusiasm producer director Robert B Weide. (Weide also directed How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, starring Frost's friend Simon Pegg.)

Mr Sloane is set in 1969 in Watford - which is just far enough from London to have missed out on the Swinging Sixties and light years away from the glamour of Mad Men.

But it all looks glorious, confident and reassuringly expensive.

Tonight's double bill sees Mr Sloane get off to a rocky start in his new job as a substitute teacher and there are scenes set in a boozer that are filled with ­realistically snappy and rambling banter.

Sloane's friends include Peter Serafinowicz as gambling addict Ross, who is at the centre of a lovely running joke about the vagaries of 1960s-style parenting, while Olivia Colman appears in flashbacks as Sloane's wife Janet.

But even this TV Bafta darling is upstaged by Ophelia ­Lovibond, as Sloane's new love interest.

With an accent that's bang on the money, Robin is a groovy American half his age with a habit of bumping into him at his most embarrassing moments.

But she finds Sloane endearing, rather than disgusting - and you will, too.

Radio Times review

In the past decade Nick Frost has gone from being Simon Pegg's bumbling sidekick to a Hollywood film star in his own right. So it's a treat to have him back on the small screen in a comedy written especially for him by Curb Your Enthusiasm director/producer Robert B Weide.

Set in 1969 in buttoned-up Watford, Mr Sloane is about a chap so hapless he can't even succeed at his own suicide. In the opening scene he tries to hang himself but crashes to the floor, bringing half the ceiling with him. He's lost his job, his wife and is prone to rose-tinted daydreams at odds with horn-rimmed reality.

Although this first episode is short on belly laughs, it goes down as easily as a glass of Babycham thanks to a tip-top cast (including Olivia Colman as estranged spouse) and its deliciously drab setting.

Why you must watch Nick Frost in Mr Sloane

It's a pitch perfect piece of TV, telling its bittersweet story with wit and warmth and deft psychological insight.

Nick Frost-lookalike inspiration behind Mr Sloane

Acclaimed director Robert Weide has described how a chance experience with a Nick Frost-lookalike inspired him to write new Sky Atlantic series Mr Sloane.

Like Nick Helm's BBC3 comedy Uncle, this period sitcom from Sky Atlantic begins with a botched suicide attempt, but (as with Uncle) the tone lightens significantly from there. Nick Frost plays the titular Sloane, a man out of time in a swinging 60s, separated from his wife and out of work, but ploughing on regardless. Created by Curb Your Enthusiasm alum Robert B Weide, it boasts a supporting cast including Peter Serafinowicz and Olivia Colman.

Ophelia Lovibond interview

Rising actress Ophelia Lovibond is too smart to settle for playing characterless babes. She talks about her obsession with the 60s, her love of silly humour and entertaining Mr Sloane (aka Nick Frost) in her latest TV series.

Nick Frost: the film funnyman on fame and painful past

His goofy humour has lit up Spaced, Cuban Fury and now Mr Sloane. But behind the silliness lies an unexpectedly difficult past.

Nick Frost to star in Fox comedy pilot Sober Companion

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Nick Frost on Mr Slone

Nick Frost on why his 1960s-set comedy Mr Sloane doesn't swing.