TV review: Love and Marriage

Pauline Paradise, played by Alison Steadman, walks out on her boring husband who seems oblivious to what's going on in her life, and her dependent children, all grown up and married with children of their own, but still reliant on her to help out with cash, catering and organising their lives.

She goes to stay with her free-spirit sister Rowan (Celia Imrie) and embarks on a relationship with a teacher who woos her with poetry and plenty of attention as her family try increasingly desperate attempts to persuade her to come back home.

Last night saw episode three of the show screened on ITV1. It started off with daft and financially embarrassed son Kevin (Stewart Wright), a fireman, attend a blaze in which an elderly woman has died.

He notices there are no photographs around, and fearful that this may be what the future holds in store for his mother, he phones to tell her his father Ken (Duncan Preston) is ill and she has to come home.

Then he discovers a secret stash of cash and grabs a handful, certain he would never get found out. Of course, he does and the police turn up to arrest him as he prepares to host a Borat- themed party. They take him away dressed in a new suit, black wig and moustache.

Meanwhile, Ken has emerged from under the bonnet of his beloved car and is feigning illness in order to get Pauline to come home. His plan backfires when she refuses to rush to his side and when an ambulance is called he makes a miraculous recovery. Later he is injured for real when he somersaults off his grandchildren's trampoline over a hedge.

Meanwhile, as word gets round that irritatingly jovial Kev has been arrested, the family rally round and brother Martin (Graeme Hawley) turns up at the station in his party outfit, a green mankini.

The police and wife Sarah (Ashley Jensen) eventually see through Kev's lies and he admits taking the money as well as an earlier theft at the rugby club.

It all ends happily when he gets off with a caution and is welcomed back into the bosom of the family with open arms. After all, he was only taking the cash so his son could go on a rugby tour.

As the show progresses we see Rowan's granddaughter Scarlett finally track down her missing mother Emma and Pauline discovers her new man-friend is Coventry's answer to Casanova.

The family are all briefly reunited at the end during Kev's homecoming, but it's short-lived as Ken fails to persuade Pauline to return home, despite his now very real predicament of having to lie flat on the floor after the trampoline incident.

So, three shows in has this show lived up to the hype and expectations?

To be honest, not really. The script and plot is thin and predictable and the situations the family find themselves in are farcical, unrealistic, low on laughs and high on sentimentality. But there is some great acting hiding away here and the cast lift it into what is ultimately a watchable, gently humorous way to spend a Wednesday evening.

The technique of having the characters do pieces direct to camera worked in the first episode and was a useful way of discovering exactly who was who in the complicated family set-up and getting an insight into their characters.

But now we are in episode three it's not needed and serves no real purpose except to punctuate the plot and offer the writers an easy way to weave in some extra jokes. Fans of Sky 1's Modern Family will know this technique can be used to much greater effect.

Meanwhile, there are there three more episodes of Love and Marriage to come. They may serve to offer a mildly pleasant way to spend a Wednesday evening, but not if something more exciting comes along.

Sally-Anne Youll