Simon Nye

You'd have to be very brave or very foolish to tackle a remake of classic 1970s sitcom The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. As this was written by the novel's author David Nobbs together with Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye, it's definitely a gamble worth taking.

It helps that Martin Clunes, who has the unenviable task of stepping into Leonard Rossiter's shoes as the downtrodden office man, looks nothing like the 70s star. Viewers who remember the original will be preoccupied with making comparisons. So what else is different?

Modernisation means that even Reggie's fantasy life must be politically correct - so no more hippo fantasies. And as his boss Chris Jackson, Neil Stuke has a the difficult job of measuring up to John Barron's masterful CJ.

What is strange is the fanciful excuses Reggie used to give each morning for why he was late now sound exactly like announcements commuters hear every day. "Wrong kind of passenger at South Norwood?" Why not?

Martin Clunes takes on Reggie Perrin

Thirty years later, Martin Clunes replaces Leonard Rossiter as the sitcom drone in the throes of a mid-life crisis. The Times reports from the set.

Reggie Perrin rides again

The much-loved Reggie Perrin, having fallen and risen, rises again - with Martin Clunes in the role made famous by Leonard Rossiter. The Independent joins the cast and writers on set.

It does not say much about broadcasters' confidence in new writing when they fall back on reviving something tried and tested. There seems to be a lot of this about at the moment. It has just been confirmed by the BBC that Martin Clunes is going to recreate the classic lead role made famous in the seventies by Leonard Rossiter, in a remake of The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. It will now be called simply Perrin and no doubt there will be lots of headlines about Reggie behaving very badly.

Clunes is always good value and quality writer Simon Nye is working on it with Reggie's creator David Nobbs, which sounds good. The only thing that worries me is that we have slightly been here before with The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, the 1996 series that, unlike the forthcoming version gathered together original cast members, but like the forthcoming version, lacked the real star, Leonard Rossiter, due to Rossiter being dead. Which is a bit like Hamlet without Hamlet.

Autumn means sitcoms - presumably with the intention that we can laugh ourselves warm, and only have to put the heating on for Newsnight. Alas, Carrie and Barry (BBC One, Saturday), back for an inexplicable second series, would leave most viewers in the first stages of mild hypothermia.

Don't worry if you weren't impressed with the sleepy first run of Simon Nye's domestic comedy. This second series has a much more confident vibe to it. Kicking off with an episode that sees taxi driver Barry (Neil Morrissey) caught for speeding and his missus Carrie (Clare Rushbrook) trying to trace her family tree, there are more laughs in the first 10 minutes than Ben Elton's Blessed has so far managed in two episodes.

Despite the gentle, cosy set-up, this is everything a good sitcom should be - sufficiently grounded to be recognisable, but never afraid to spiral into gleeful bouts of clever one-liners and nifty slapstick when the occasion demands it. There's none of the desperation to force laughs that scuppers the likes of My Family, just a charming, laidback assurance that if the characters and dialogue are good enough, the chortles will come.

And come they do. Barry taunting a hungover Carrie with gives about female binge drinking, Kirk (Mark Williams) explaining about his Gran's holiday to Malmo (She hasn't seen that many blonde people since she flirted with the Hitler Youth in her twenties), Michelle (Michelle Gomez) experimenting with fake breasts and a genius sequence with a sarcastic traffic cop are just the highlights of a mainstream comedy wasted in the limbo of Saturday night.

From the writer of Men Behaving Badly, Simon Nye, and starring the Man Behaving Badly Neil Morrissey, Carrie and Barry essentially poses the question: "What if, instead of going out with the disapproving Leslie Ash, Neil Morrissey played a character married to someone just like Martin Clunes - but a woman!?!"

Those who live amidst difficult situations assess their life in markedly different ways depending on their state of mind. It's this kind of perceptive writing - along with top jokes - that has made How Do You Want Me? something of a treat. Let's hope for more, but not for too much more.

Is It Legal? is exquisitely British, the antidote to Oprah. All the solicitors are gnawed with the sharp teeth of desire. The effect is like indigestion bravely borne. The acting is extraordinarily good, from Bob (Patrick Barlow, who is half the National Theatre of Brent), to Darren (Matthew Ashforde), the essence of pubescence.

How Do You Want Me? (BBC2), by Simon Nye, is delightful [...] Dylan Moran, who plays the townie, is a Perrier Award-winning stand-up comic, hence his gorgeous delivery last week of an interminable, dirty and unappreciated joke. He is new to drama and your jaw just drops when you know that. This is a first-class bit of natural acting, with double distinction in sleepy-eyed mumbling.