British TV Show Reviews "M"

Mac (1/96)
BBC comedy pilot about a super-nationalistic Scotsman. Not really that far away from that character Mike Myers used to do on Saturday Night Live whose catchphrase was, "If it's nae Scottish, it's crap!" Mac tries to get a job at a store specializing in Scottish merchandise, but his heavy-handed patriotism keeps getting the best of him.

Macbeth on the Estate (9/97)
An abridged version of the Shakespeare tragedy is set on a council estate where a young punk and his wife conspire to take the "kingdom." Much like Ian McKellen's recent Richard III, all the dialog is authentic from the text, but the classic story has been successfully grafted into circumstances Shakespeare could never have imagined.

Madam Cyn's Home Movie (4/08)
Channel 4 broadcasts the visual memoirs of Cynthia Payne, a former madam who lived in a respectable neighborhood, yet was doing unrespectable things inside with male clients and bored housewives who worked for her. 

The Magician's House (1/01)
Ian Richardson (House of Cards) stars as a middle ages sorcerer who visits the 20th Century to help out some modern children in this BBC fantasy drama. Richardson plays it almost exactly like the William Hartnell Doctor Who, a bit befuddled and ill-tempered but all-powerful when the chips are down.

Maid Marion and Her Merry Men (5/94)
Tony Robinson's revisionist Robin Hood parody goes out with a bang in this final season. The first episode is a devastating parody of a game show in England called The Crystal Maze hosted by Richard O'Brien (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). Even if you didn't care for previous seasons of this blend of humor, music, and anachronisms, the show really delivers the laughs this time --it's too good to be aimed just at kids.

Maisie Raine (1/99)
Pauline Quirke (Birds of A Feather) plays the detective inspector of a plainclothes police unit, though the cliches fly fast and furious in this BBC drama series. Maisie is of course tough-as-nails on the outside, and able to solve every crime (and everyone else's problems) in 45 minutes, but whose own personal life is out of control. And her humorless female boss forces a weekly confrontation, ("Just give me 24 more hours, guv!") while her racially-mixed squad back Maisie completely. It's okay material, but smacks a bit of a vanity piece for Quirke.

Making News (3/90)
Drama about the behind-the-scenes in a news room. Starring Paul Darrow (Blake's 7 Avon).

The Man (1/00)
Lenny Henry stars in this BBC drama as a travel agent who would rather be in a band. His long-suffering partner puts up with his refusal to grow up and face his responsibilities, and allows him to run off to Spain when he b.s.es a hotelier (John Sessions) to let his band play a resort. A harmless look at a man with a dream, while trying to live in the real world.

Manchild (3/03)
Anthony Stewart Head ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Nigel Havers co-star in this clever BBC satire about four successful gentlemen in their 50s and their inability to act their age.  Each goes for the latest trendy thing to look young and attract girls half their age.  Havers addresses the camera directly, with highly ironic narration that reveals what a clueless git both he and his friends are in their fruitless bid to avoid the realization that their best years are now behind them.

The Man from AUNTIE (7/94)
Is Ben Elton (longtime writer of The Young Ones, and Blackadder among other things). He does his standup act interspersed with comic parodies of Oprah Winfrey (yes, Oprah plays in England) and other cultural oddities. Probably nobody over 35 gets his humor.

Man Stroke Woman (4/07)
BBC Sketch comedy series with Nick Frost ("Hot Fuzz") as one of the cast that looks at male/female relationships. 

Man To Man With Dean Learner (4/08)
Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) revives this character last seen in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace as a late night chat show host (think a sleazy Hugh Hefner) in this spoof who humiliates and abuses his guests (each week played by Matthew Holness), revealing a true sadistic streak in Learner.  

A Many Splintered Thing (7/99)
Alan Davies (Jonathan Creek) stars in this BBC comedy pilot as a married ad jingle writer who wakes up after a party with a strange girl in his bed. He quickly gets rid of her but the experience (and the girl) continue to haunt him. Interestingly, we are barely introduced to his wife, but from all appearances he should stick with the new girl. Presumably a series is coming that will continue the tale.

March In Windy City (7/98)
David Jason (Only Fools and Horses) stars in this ITV TV movie pilot for a series about a retired spy who is asked (of course) for "one more job." He is to go to Chicago and assassinate a member of the Russian mafia (David McCallum) running for the U.S. Senate. Years earlier, flashbacks reveal, McCallum's character had been responsible for killing March's girlfriend during a mission. Okay, ignoring the improbability of such a scenario, this is a good dramatic vehicle, with Jason and McCallum nicely sparring off each other. Slickly filmed on location with no-name American actors (playing characters who of course can't find their own fingers without help from a foreigner), March is an enduring character with his obsession with toys, fear of heights and wallpaper, and strange connection with dwarves (one keeps popping up throughout the city wherever he goes).

Margaret Thatcher: Where Am I Now? (1/00)
A series of short Channel 4 animated comedies by comic artist Steve Bell, chronicling the Iron Lady's life and years in power, as narrated by herself. With a daffy visual style, and clever wit, the satirical swords are out, much as you might expect, considering the subject.

Margery & Gladys (5/04)
Light-hearted ITV TV movie with perennial upper-middle class overachiever Penelope Keith (The Good Life/Neighbors) as Margery, a recent widow whose life of order suddenly is thrown out of kilter when she accidentally kills an intruder, and she and her cleaning lady Gladys run for it.  Soon they are breaking every law in the country and much to Margery's horror discovers that she and Gladys had a lot more in common than she ever suspected.  Martin Freeman (The Office) plays a goofy over-the-top policeman sporting the gayest moustache ever.

Marion & Geoff (1/01)
Ten minute shorts chronicling the story of a minicab driver (Rob Brydon) inside his car recounting the breakup of his marriage to Marion (who remarried Geoff), which for some deluded reason he thinks there is still hope for. Sad clueless gits have always been a mainstay of British comedy, and your tolerance for this will depend on how much masochism you can see a character inflict on himself in this one-man show. A prequel movie in 2001, A Small Summer Party, finally reveals the details of their breakup.

Mark Lamarr Leaving The 20th Century (3/00)
Slick-haired comic and host Lamarr (Nevermind The Buzzcocks) presents various rants about life today, which usually links somehow to guests such as Barbara Windsor (EastEnders) or Boy George. Lamarr is effective, as he's one of the few people on TV not afraid to get angry on the air or call bullshit on someone shoveling it out - Larry King, he's not.

The Mark Thomas Comedy Product (11/96)
Michael Moore's TV Nation is such a hit in England that the BBC have financed another series of it for next year. It has also spawned imitations, one being this series about a stand-up comic who films "stunts" designed to annoy, harass, or otherwise embarrass various corporations or politicians. I find this kind of video terrorism tiring but obviously it has its audience.

Married For Life (11/96)
British TV is not always a bed of roses. Witness this: A UK adaptation of Married With Children. Al is now "Ted" (played by Russ Abbot) but the plots and setting will be familiar to anyone who has seen the original FOX series. Unfortunately, in adjusting it to English sensibilities something subtle was lost in the translation and Married For Life comes across as just another annoying ITV sitcom. Kill me now!

Massive Moments of the 20th Century (1/01)
Two actors recreate famous events of the last 100 years (the abdication of Edward VIII, the moon landing, the Clinton scandal) by playing all the participants themselves, in this great send-up of both the personalities and stories. The action keeps moving in each episode, as the actors seem almost to be winging it like some live stage show gone mad.

Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere (2/06)
Peter Kay spins this off his successful Phoenix Nights show with two losers who hit the road in an RV and have misadventures which eventually lead to some prison time, a jail break, and an attempt by Max to reunite with the son he never knew he had with his former midget girlfriend who married his best friend.

Mayo (4/07)
Alistair McGowan in this BBC light-hearted dysfunctional detective drama.  Part Sherlock Holmes on the job, but hopeless at home with his daughter, a wife who has gone missing, and an old flame as his partner. He and his team travel around to crime scenes in a large trailer which I swear is bigger on the inside than the outside.  As a cop show however, "Monk" does this better and funnier.

May To December (11/90)
An older solicitor (Anton Rogers) begins to romance a young athletic teacher (Eve Matheson) half his age. First season of the long-running BBC series. Read my interview with series writer Paul Mendelson.

(8/91)
In a 50-minute Christmas special to kick off the new season, with Leslie Dunlop taking over the Eve Matheson part. Frankly, I preferred Matheson. Some cute black-and-white Perry Mason spoofs though.

(3/93)
Alex and Zoe are now happily married and have a baby daughter. If you ask me, all the charm left the series when they replaced Eve Matheson, and it has settled down to a predictable domestic sitcom.

McCoist & MacAulay (7/00)
Two comics roam Britain, setting up their chat show in a different city each time, doing a few location-specific sketches, and interviewing celebrities.

Meades Eats (3/04)
Cultural observer Jonathan Meades returns with a food-based look at British mores, ironically after a tremendous weight loss on his part.  But his wit and use of visual sight gags is just as sharp, and you'll definitely look at your dinner plate differently after hearing what he has to say.

Meat (1/95)
BBC TV Movie about the relationship between a juvenile offender and a young prostitute on the mean streets of London. Nobody lays on the pain and misery like the British, and you can bet your last pound that there is no happy endings for anyone. Nevertheless, this material is imbued with an honesty and craft that is not easily dismissed no matter how off-putting the subject matter.

Medics (3/93)
Medical drama starring Tom Baker as yet another doctor, this time the normal Earth variety. ITV's answer to Casualty, a phenomenal hit on the BBC for several years.

Melissa (11/97)
Complex Channel 4 mystery about a group of close friends who are slowly being killed off one by one. Caught in the middle of this is a man who meets the enigmatic Melissa on a cruise, marries her on a whim, and then is accused of her murder a short while later. Melissa had a lot of secrets but then so do all her friends.... Based on a novel, most of the first two episodes were created by the screenwriter (Melissa is already dead when the book begins) with the blessing of the original author, who adds a satisfying backstory to the events as they unfold.

Men Behaving Badly (9/96)
Prior to NBC's "adaption" of this British sitcom, it had gone through a number of incarnations itself. Originally an unsuccessful ITV comedy with Martin Clunes (the guy with the big ears) and Harry Enfield, it subsequently moved over to the BBC where Enfield was replaced by Neil Morrissey in the 1992 series and the show never looked back, winning a BAFTA award for Best Comedy the next year. I haven't watched NBC's version yet, so I can't compare them, but Gary and Tony are such Neanderthals, trying to impress women while paying no attention to domestic chores, that you have to laugh. Dumbed down to an American format doesn't sound very appealing however.

(7/99)
The last-ever bang for flatmates Gary and Tony in this epic-length three-parter of 50 minute episodes which pretty neatly wrap up all the loose ends. Gary’s office closing coincides with Dorothy’s pregnancy, while Tony finally gets a proper job but then becomes a bore to Deborah. This was the highest-rated program over Christmas 1998 although it was later criticized by the Broadcasting Standards Commission for being too raunchy. Read my feature about Men Behaving Badly.

Men of the Month (11/94)
A BBC TV Movie about the men working outside renovating an office and their interaction with the up-market people who work inside. Lots of Guy Stuff goes on, but not the sort of things other guys really want to watch though. Well mounted though.

Men of the World (1/96)
Sitcom with David Threlfell as one of two men sharing a flat, the other of whom is dating a female police constable. Interesting if only for insight into the life and times of young men (and their women) in modern Britain.

Men Only (3/02)
Two part Channel 4 drama about five friends who meet up for weekly soccer games and begin to take it to the limit. Not a flattering portrait of the male gender, as they get more and more out of control and less responsible for the consequences of their acts (including a gang rape).

Metrosexuality (1/02)
Rikki Beadle-Blair stars, wrote, and directed this electric comedy/drama series for Channel 4 where the camera never stops and often you need a program to keep all the characters straight but it's well worth the effort.  It starts with Blair who plays a middle-aged Rastafarian homosexual who has a straight teenage son who thinks his dad isn't cool.  It's all about Blair's love life, his son's lovelife, the son's friends, Blair's boyfriend's friends, eventually expanding out to a huge network of friends and plots.  But incredibly he keeps all the pies in the air, with fun memorable characters who always do the right thing in the end.

MI:5 (9/03)
A&E's American title for Spooks.

Middlemarch (4/94)
The first series I've given up trying to watch. A future Masterpiece Theatre presentation, this adapatation of a costume drama (by Andrew Davies of To Play the King fame) was just too hard to sit through. In my defense, my friend Micky DuPree told me, "Well, you probably wouldn't know this, but the source author, George Eliot, is legendary for her soporific effect on high-school students as well." It's exactly the kind of lifeless production most non-Anglophiles envision when they think of Masterpiece Theatre and British dramas in general. You might like it but don't recommend it to friends.

Mind the Baby, Mr Bean (7/94)
The hapless character played by Rowan Atkinson finds himself stuck with an infant in a buggy while he spends a day at an amusement park. Need I say more?

Midnight Movie (7/95)
Brian Dennehy stars in this Dennis Potter-written movie about an American film producer living in England whose British wife is haunted by the memory of her dead mother. It features Potter's usual trademarks: dirty old men lusting after blondes, murder, and the chronology played with. But in the end it doesn't make any sense at all. Was the whole movie a fantasy or did someone just show the reels in the wrong order? A rare misfire for the late, great Dennis Potter.

The Mighty Boosh (2/06)
Goofy BBC Three comedy transfer from radio about two zookeepers who get into surreal adventures.  Talking animals, the afterlife, fighting kangaroos... nothing is too weird, and there's usually a nice musical number as well.  Written and performed by Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, it's a cult show that's too good to just be a cult.

Milner (7/95)
What I assumed was the pilot movie for a possible dramatic series starring comedian Mel Smith as a solicitor who asks too many questions about his sleazy clients. Are we ready for Attorney/Investigator?

Mine All Mine (4/07)
Russell T. Davies (Doctor Who) wrote this Welsh-set series about an eccentric cab company operator (Griff Rhys-Jones) and his wacky family whom he claims are the rightful owners of Swansea due to an old deed.  His luck changes when the deed is suddenly proven legitimate and Rhys-Jones is indeed put in charge of the entire city--that is if his senile father doesn't give it all away first.  Farcical but amusing.

Mirrorball (3/01)
Jennifer Saunders assembles her Absolutely Fabulous gang for this satire of show business types (and had such a good time with everyone that they've decided to do another season of AbFab).  Saunders and Julia Sawalha plays actress roommates with  different ambitions (and talent) trying to scratch a living, while Joanna Lumley is the washed up torch singer trying to avoid her manager/husband.  Interestingly, Jane Horrocks plays a Bjork-like waitress from Iceland whose character will now appear in AbFab.   Saunders finally triumphs in an audition (after Bonnie Langford is told she isn't right for the part) and gets the lead in the musical version of "Angela's Ashes" but breaks her leg afterwards in a drunken celebration.  Can she keep it a secret from the director until it's too late to recast?  There was only one episode of this BBC pilot, but at least it shows Saunders is in good form, and hopefully will avoid being in other people's stinkers like Let Them Eat Cake.

The Missing Postman (7/97)
James Bolam (The Beiderbecke Affair) stars as a bicycling postman who, on the day he is to be made redundant, picks up the mail from a pillar box and impulsively decides to deliver it all - by hand. He begins to ride across the British countryside delivering letters, eventually drawing the attention of the police (as he's stolen Royal Mail), and the media, who see him as some kind of symbol. He manages to keep one step ahead of all of them, and finds himself taken in and assisted by people as his fame spreads. Meanwhile back home, his wife (Alison Steadman) fills her time by taking interior decorating to a new degree. An utterly charming two-part BBC production.

Mr Bean  (1/03)
Rowan Atkinson's cartoony character is now actually an animated series and presumably aimed more at kids.  He still provides the voice, mostly grunts and non-verbal annoyance at the ordinary things that continually vex Bean and only Bean.

Mr Charity (11/02)
Stephen Tomkinson (Ballykissangel) stars in this mildly entertaining BBC comedy about an opportunistic and amoral organizer of a second-rate charity.  Wasn't Chris Barrie available, or has he finally tired of these type of roles?  Tomkinson tries hard but Mr Comedy he's not.

Monarch of the Glen (3/02)
Glossy BBC family drama series about an English family who take up residence in an old ancestral home in the Scottish Highlands and their attempts to keep the estate going.  Utterly harmless entertainment and hugely popular, but lacking any kind of edge.

Monkey Dust (2/06)
Animated series with sketches and running jokes, often in questionable taste.  Everything is fair game and some of the bits (like the boyfriend who continually forgets to compliment his girlfriend's new hair cut because some world shattering event distracts him) are pretty good.

Mosley (7/98)
Channel 4 presented the four-part dramatization of the life of Sir Oswald Mosley, who in the 30s created Britain's Fascist movement. Written by comedy writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran (Birds of a Feather, The New Statesman), this intriguing production meticulously chronicles the rise to power of the ambitious Mosley after World War I until his internment in 1940 when his links to Hitler's Germany were politically untenable. Mosley was also a notorious adulterer and the series does not shy away from showing him in action (lots of nudity) or the impact on his first wife (played by Jemma Redgrave). No expense was spared on the historical recreations, including Mosley's Nuremberg-like "blackshirt" rallies. A frightening moment in British history, but Marks and Gran (both Jewish) successfully (and seriously) bring it to life and provide insight into the man and his era.

Mothertime (3/98)
Christmas-themed BBC TV movie with Gina McKee (Our Friends In The North) as a divorced mother of four who comes home drunk one night in a state that would make Patsy on AbFab blush. Her kids, led by her teenage daughter, decide rather than her ruining Christmas completely, to lock her in the downstairs sauna until she sobers up. It works so well they decide to keep her there, and manage to convince everyone, including their estranged father, that everything is okay for weeks on end. What's really great about this is how it slowly turns the table on the audience, having us first believe McKee is a complete monster, while the children's father (Anthony Andrews) is some kind of dream dad. But things are not what they seem and by the end everyone gets their just desserts.

Moving Story (7/94)
Warren Clarke (Sleepers) strikes again in this comedy/drama series about employees at a moving company. Yes, each week we follow their exciting adventures as they hit the road...and help someone move! While it may sound like a one-off Saturday Night Live sketch, in reality there is plenty of drama and odd characters along the way (including Clarke--wearing a goofy mustache and glasses playing a working-class man who wants to win at Mastermind by memorizing all the answers in Trivial Pursuit). I love it. You really get into these people's lives who only want to get home at night after a hard day's work--but what days they have.

The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (1/99)
BBC pilot movie for a series beginning later with Diana Rigg gloriously returning to television in this amusing and well-acted 1920s period piece mystery. The divorced Mrs. Bradley buries her ex-husband before the credits even roll, and then it's off to a manor house where murder and skeletons in the closet materialize at a frightful rate. Rigg's asides to the camera, commenting on the action, are priceless, and her relationship with her not-as-dumb-as-he-looks chauffeur George is intriguing. Co-produced by WGBH, this should turn up on Mystery later in 1999.

Mrs Hartley and the Growth Centre (11/95)
BBC TV movie with Pam Ferris (star of the family drama The Darling Buds of May) as a woman who leaves her philandering executive husband and takes up with a younger man. They move into the young man's aunt's house in the country and open up a New Age center for the sexually repressed. Ferris is perfect as a Born Again Earth Mother whose attempts to get rid of the aunt fail repeatedly. Eventually of course the locals begin to protest the goings-on, especially a politician whom Ferris inadvertently kept tied up in a bed and forgot about.

Mrs. Merton and Malcolm (9/99)
There's something about Caroline Aherne (The Fast Show, The Royle Family) that clearly I'm not getting. She seems to focus on sad characters in domestic situations whose lives are clearly going nowhere. In this BBC series, she revives her little-old-lady character (last seen as a cheeky chat show host) who takes care of her adult son Malcolm. Despite being in his thirties, Malcolm's relationship with his mother is more like a 7-year-old's. Shot on film, and devoid of a laughtrack, it seems to me the joke wore thin after 10 minutes.

Mr. White Goes To Westminster (3/98)
Thinly disguised dramatization of former BBC correspondent Martin Bell's election to Parliament over a corrupt Tory minister. Bill Paterson stars in this TV movie as the squeaky clean idealist, only to have Fleet Street (in the shape of Dervla Kirwan (Ballykissangel)) attempt to smear him because of a bill on press regulation he proposes. How much is satire and how much is reality is left to the viewer but it's an interesting romp.

A Mug's Game (9/96)
BBC drama set in a coastal Scottish village where everyone works for a fish-processing plant that has recently been acquired by a larger company. The story revolves around a widow, Kathy (Michelle Fairly), who lives with her dysfunctional family including her forever-complaining mother, an adult brother who never stops watching videos, and a diabetic daughter. At the fish plant, the other women pass the day on the line gutting fish with earthy talk about sex and men, while Kathy attracts the eye of the newly arrived owner, McCaffrey (Taking Over the Asylum's Ken Stott). McCaffrey has his own problems including being a widower himself and saddled with his headstrong Irish nephew, Con, who has a penchant for shoplifting and picking up women. At the end of the first episode, Con and Kathy have connected after Kathy's daughter needs an emergency trip to the hospital (Con conveniently had stolen a car and was able to take them) and they discover their mutual background in music (Kathy, as her mother continually reminds her, was "third runner up in the 1979 Irish Youth music festival" for playing the flute). Which man will she end up with?

Mulberry (5/93)
The first season of this odd series began with a strange young man who goes to work for an old woman, all the while conspiring with his mysterious father. Is he a thief? Who is his father? Finally in the last episode it was revealed his father is Death and his job is to take the old lady when her time comes! This is a BBC comedy! The second series continues with this unusual premise, all the time promising us that at some point the old lady is going to die. Again, only the British would attempt something like this, and despite a sentimental bent, it works.

Murder (9/03)
A young man is suddenly murdered near where he lives at the beginning of this tense BBC drama and his family, friends and neighbors must make sense of it as the mystery of who is responsible and why is investigated.  Each episode focuses on another member the community (the local shopkeeper, the female detective, a journalist) and how it impacts their lives, as we see Julie Walters as the victim's devastated mother trying to cope with all.  A very interesting counterpoint to television's typical non-reaction to  high deathcounts.

Murder in Mind (3/95)
BBC erotic thriller starring Charlotte Rampling and Trevor Eve about suicides at a mental therapy center run by Rampling. Eve is the flawed police inspector investigating the case but he too falls under Rampling's spell as she seeks to play God with people's lives.

Murder Most Horrid (7/94)
Dawn French stars in this anthology series of comic tales about murder. Each is particularly clever and usually has some kind of twist ending, and French gets to show off her talents by playing a different character every week. Not as dark as say, Tales from the Crypt, this maintains that wicked sense of British morbid humor without overdoing it.

(11/96)
Six new tales starring Dawn French where murder is dispatched with comedic results and big-name guest stars including Nigel Havers, Hugh Laurie, and Stratford Johns.

(11/99)
Dawn French returns in a new season of black comedies including "Confessions of a Murderer" about a pathological liar who wastes police time by confessing to everything; "Frozen," set during the post-war austerity years with two sisters who have a deep freeze and a secret; "Going Solo," a two-girl attempt to sail around the world that ends in jealousy; "Whoopi Stone," going undercover to catch a gangster and then being framed by ambitious policemen; and "Elvis, Jesus and Zack" where a slow day at the obituary office is bad news for a washed up rock star (Sean Hughes). Don't worry, Dawn always survives each episode and always gets her own back, the great thing is waiting for the comic twist at the end.

Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (3/02)
Ian Richardson (House of Cards) stars as Professor Bell, mentor to Arthur Conan Doyle when he was still a M.D., and apparently the template for Sherlock Holmes.  Bell, like the great detective, is always spotting the clues everyone else misses and making brilliant deductions at the drop of a fine Victorian hat, the era which this series lovingly recreates even as bodies and vexing mysteries accumulate at a high rate.  Plenty of in-jokes for Holmsians (a quickly glimpsed billboard for the Giant Rat of Sumatra, a character sporting a deerstalker), although the series casts an surprising number of comedians for its supporting roles.

Murphy's Law (3/04)
James Nesbitt (Cold Feet) stars as an undercover Met detective who brings his peculiar Irish sensibility to what are ostensibly serious assignments.  One week he might be put in jail to get a suspected serial killer to confess, the next week he'll be bodyguarding a famous snooker player, the next infiltrating a gang.  The trouble is he ends up in the papers nearly every week which you would think would limit his effectiveness as a deep-cover officer.  Claudia Harrison (Attachments) stars as his boss, so there's plenty of sexual tension between her and Murphy.

The Mushroom Picker (3/93)
A bizarre three-part drama starring Nigel Terry as a Russian gourmand who seduces and marries a naive Englishwoman so he can one day emigrate to the UK and have an affair with the woman's married friend. Set in the early 80s, the scenes in Moscow as the couple share a flat while trying to eke out a miserable existence are the most dramatic. When the action shifts back to England it settles down to a tale about sex and food. Andrew Sachs (Fawlty Towers) has a small part.

My Dad's The Prime Minister (3/04)
Ian Hislop (Have I Got News For You) co-wrote this BBC children's series about... well, the title pretty much sums it up.  A shy boy must suffer his clueless PM father (Cold Feet's Robert Bathurst) as well as cruel schoolmates but despite all the adults being morons, things usually work out well by the end.

My Family (1/01)
Robert Lindsay (Hornblower) plays a domesticated father and dentist in this BBC sitcom that is novel because it was written in the "round table" format used by American comedies, rather than a team of just one or two writers as is usual in Britain. Despite being a BBC series, it's like too many ITV comedies; it misses the mark just a bit, particularly in such a well-mined genre like this. The best moments are the simple blackout jokes before and after each episode which have nothing to do with the plot. As for the rest, everyone is trying just a tad too hard.

My Good Friend (9/95)
Gentle ITV comedy about two retired gentlemen who really have nobody but each other. Peter (George Cole, Minder's Arthur) lives with his fussy daughter and son-in-law, while Harry boards with an attractive young single mother (Minnie Driver). Together they try and cope in a world that really doesn't need them any longer. A lack of laugh-track and honest characters make this pleasant to watch.

(1/97)
The Minnie Driver role has been recast (she's making movies here now) and for the worse in my opinion. George Cole is the whole series though, playing a lovable crank who is always plotting how to wind someone up.

My Government And I (1/02)
Impressionist Rory Bremner stars in this hour-long satirical drama about Tony Blair's government.  Blair is shown as completely feckless and at the mercy of his advisors, and at one point even seeks advice from an otherworldly Princess Diana (which evoked much outrage in Britain).  But it truly goes out of this world literally when good pal Bill Clinton (also played by Bremner) drops by during the last days of his presidency and tells Blair that life has been discovered on one of Jupiter's moons.  Desperate at the end, they commandeer a space shuttle and head out there, looking for new constituents to impress!

My Hero (3/01)
Irish comic Ardal O'Hanlon (best known as the dim priest Father Dougal in Father Ted) stars in this BBC sitcom as Thermoman, the world's favorite superhero.   But he spends most of his time in his civilian secret identity as George, an Irishman who doesn't quite understand all (or any, really) Earth customs.  He falls in love with a nurse and they move in together.  Yes, it's "Mork and Mindy" for the 21st Century, which is zero points for originality, but the jokes are good and O'Hanlon excels at playing charming comic dimwits. Read my interview with series writer Paul Mendelson.

My Life In Films (4/07)
Kris Marshall (My Family) stars in this BBC comedy as an aspiring but untalented screenwriter whose misadventures with his flatmates each week resemble a famous movie, be it "Shallow Grave" or "Top Gun."  It's a clever conceit, particularly if you have to work out which movie they are parodying that episode.

My Wonderful Life (9/97)
Ironically titled ITV sitcom created by Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly) that first appeared as a TV Movie, True Love continuing the adventures of Donna, a single mother of two stuck in a dead-end nursing job. But she muddles through despite a confused lovelife, broken appliances, and rebellious daughters. Tony Robinson is hilarious in a supporting role as Donna's next door neighbor, a soft-spoken family man who is so politically correct it's clear there's not a self-help book he didn't like.