Single (ITV1) : THE life of an ITV1 drama series these days is as precarious as that of a Tory Party leader.

If the public don't respond to you, your position becomes increasingly difficult.

New medical drama Sweet Medicine has been diagnosed as losing viewers so fast that the series has been relegated from Thursday primetime to late night Sunday. Now the Martin Kemp drama Family is being pulled from Mondays at 9pm and switched to a graveyard slot because of falling ratings.

I fear for the future of Single on Saturday nights, not an easy slot in which to succeed at any time. This comes from the Cold Feet school of relationship comedy-dramas, but is neither original or outstanding enough to distinguish it from the crowd.

The publicity describes it as an ensemble piece but the script puts the emphasis on Michelle Collins' newly-separated character Sarah. She and husband Paul (Brendan Coyle) have been apart for five months and, as she tells the Relate counsellor at the start, she would like to make it permanent. "I want my life back, I want to draw a line under my marriage," she says.

As someone asks, can you think of anyone on a trial separation who got back together again? Ken and Deirdre, comes the reply.

The couple must go through dividing the spoils of marriage - she keeps the two children but wants him to "at least take that piece of carpet round the toilet, it's got your priceless urine collection on it".

Not a very nice comment, but Paul's not a very nice man. How he's managed to find a sympathetic mistress (Catherine Russell) is a mystery. Or why Sarah goes to bed with him when he goes round to collect his things.

This has to be the main problem with Single - all the characters are so unappealing that I couldn't care less what happens to any of them. They can be moved to a midnight slot for all I care.

The only prospective bright spot is Julie (Morwenna Banks), Sarah's new lodger who has been separated for two years but too embarrassed to tell her parents.

Sarah's teenage daughter is horrified at the prospect of sharing a house with two older women. "Harrison Ford, synchronised periods and double dating" is her view of the future. No wonder, she takes one look at Julie and demands a lock on her bedroom door.

Julie persuades Sarah to take a tentative first step in finding a new man but as Sarah says, "I've got the dating skills of a 16-year-old trapped inside a 40-year-old body."

Her best friend is Mark (Alastair Gilbraith), a bus driver who says that women love a man in a uniform (even his, it appears). He's horrified when Sarah goes to visit her husband's mistress, but even that confrontation failed to bring this opening episode to life.

I wouldn't like to bet on who'll be moved first - Single or IDS.

Published: 27/10/2003