Keep counting the calories

This was a large, jumbo-size version, stretching to 90 minutes, to open the new series. The story unashamedly tugged at the old heartstrings, tapping into a mother and son reunion scenario that couldn't fail to make you put down your cream cake and reach for a hankie as their New Year's Eve reunion took place.

An appearance on Tricia's TV chat show led to Betty (Alison Steadman) making an unguarded comment about the son she gave away for adoption when she was 15. She knew he was married with two children of his own now because she'd tracked him down and visited him without revealing her true identity.

Betty's festive family celebrations were disrupted, not only by gobbling down one too many portions of Christmas pudding and cream, but by the unexpected arrival of son Simon.

The remainder of the episode was split between jokes about sticky toffee pudding, chocolate and Christmas cake at the expense of the fellow slimmers who drifted in and out of Betty's life, and her attempts to get to know Simon - an ambition hindered by his discovery that she'd thwarted his father's attempt to meet him.

Husband, and proprietor of the Big 'n' Battered fish and chip shop, Douglas (Barrie Rutter) valiantly tried to pretend it was business as usual as he forgot to thaw the turkey and suddenly remembered he had £250,000 in the bank he'd omitted to tell his wife about.

The busy Mellor - Fat Friends follows swiftly from her Between The Sheets series - has found the perfect formula in which to set human dramas against the background of gentle fun (and a few serious points) about slimming. It's not deep and meaningful or ground-breaking, but she has obvious affection for her characters and cares about their problems.

It's not a patch on psycho Cathy Bradford running amok in The Bill or new bride Janine pushing boring Barry over the edge in EastEnders, but Fat Friends is accomplished comfort viewing.

In an evening when BBC1 screened three movies in swift succession in peaktime, the channel redeemed itself with the early evening TV film Carrie's War, one of the few pieces of original one-off drama around this Christmas.

This was a lovingly-crafted, well-acted adaptation of Nina Bawden's novel about a girl, the Carrie of the title, and her brother evacuated to a Welsh village during the Second World War.

How horrifying it must have been for these young evacuees to have to sit around in a church hall waiting to be chosen by an adult willing to take them in. Carrie (Keeley Fawcett) and brother Nick ended up with stern Mr Evans, a man whose complicated family tree and skeletons in the cupboard led to Carrie's wartime adventures.

The adult cast - led by Alun Armstrong, Pauline Quirke, Geraldine McEwan and Lesley Sharpe - could hardly have been better. While Keeley Fawcett, best known as the youngest daughter in At Home With The Braithwaites, showed what a good actress in the making she is.

Published: ??/??/2003