Sarah Millican's BBC WC pass

Comic Sarah Millican admits she was chuffed when she finally got her BBC pass - so she could use their toilets while out shopping.

No question, Sarah Millican is an excellent, deservedly award-winning stand-up.

And what does TV like to do with an excellent, deservedly award-winning stand-up?

Yep, it likes to give them their own chat show.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme starts tonight at 10pm on BBC2, with guests including Chris Packham and Tracey Cox (oh behave).

"And which animal would you like to have sex with, my love?" Millican enquires politely of a member of the audience, as only she could. The fact Millican has the air of a prim but playful aunt only makes her filthiness funnier. The vehicle here is a chat show/stand-up hybrid and the themes are wildlife and dating, mostly related to TV shows such as Snog, Marry, Avoid - "or, as I like to call it," twinkles Millican, "Top Gear."

Like most of her material, Sarah Millican's new series doesn't exactly push boundaries; although putting her on the sofa and her guests behind the desk is an intriguing if unexplained inversion of chat-show tradition. But it's a perfectly amiable half-hour of observational comedy, this week built around the TV genres of dating shows and wildlife docs. Guests Chris Packham and Tracey Cox are decent if unadventurous choices and play along gamely. But the 'Millicam' is a pun in need of a purpose, a webcam chat with her dad is an indulgence and an ineptly staged dating masterclass sends the show out on a low after a strong opening. Even so, if format and host can settle down and Millican can strike the right balance, there's potential here.

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There aren't many comedians who could ask their studio ­audience which wild animal they'd most like to have sex with and make it sound cuddly rather than crude, but Geordie comic Sarah Millican is one of them.

You can learn comedy timing or how to write a great gag - and she's an expert at both - but you can't learn warmth.

You've either got it or you haven't, and she is a comedy hot-water bottle.

Millican's series is a mixture of chat and comedy and, while that format might invite comparison with Mrs Merton, her guests aren't just there to be mocked.

Sarah becomes the butt of jokes, but she gets maximum points for asking Chris Packham: "Why do you do Springwatch every year? Isn't it the same?"

Also on tonight's show are sexpert Tracey Cox and Sarah's dad Philip, who shares his own no-nonsense philosophy.

I laughed many, many times during The Sarah Millican Television Programme (BBC2). At first glance, Millican's is a warm, unthreatening world of gentle comedy about nanas, nighties and nature programmes but, in fact, she's an iron fist in a Marigold glove. Her deadpan asides and sudden glances to camera have a touch of Eric Morecambe and her sudden shut-downs ("You've got to be tolerant of all life," says Chris Packham. "No," she replies simply) are things of beauty impossible to reproduce in print. The format's not right yet, but once it is, hopefully television will become Millican's world and we can live in it.

We Recommend: The Sarah Millican Television Programme

There are plenty of good jokes here. Sarah Millican is a very endearing host, and her material is endearingly filthy.