The Closer (C4)

Love Soup (BBC1)

DETECTIVE Brenda Leigh Johnson comes from a long line of TV cops who arrive at a new job and are met by resistance from the established team. In the first episode, the outsider duly does the job and, by the end of the hour, has won the respect and command of their colleagues. The opening part of the latest US import The Closer followed the well-worn rules of the game.

As played by Kyra Sedgwick, Johnson is forever snacking and doesn't tolerate hostility directed towards her. "If I liked being called a bitch to my face I would still be married," she snaps after a dose of name-calling. In case you're wondering about the title, it refers to her ability to solve crimes, the reason she's been chosen as head of a new priority murder squad. "She's not Miss Congeniality, but she's a closer," it was explained.

Johnson herself is well aware that the welcome mat is not being put down, but remains unrepentant about her methods, declaring: "Once they see me in action, they'll have a whole new set of reasons to hate me." Her first case involved the discovery of a badly decayed, naked body at the home of a mathematician. By the time she arrived, the murder scene had been tidied up. "I've got rid of the flies, maggots and ants," a colleague told her.

The Closer looks like a worthy addition to the current roster of US detective imports such as CSI, even if the denouement was so complicated that I had to replay the preview tape several times to take it all in.

Love Soup comes from the pen of David Renwick, writer of One Foot In The Grave and Jonathan Creek, and exists in that strange twilight world of the comedy drama. It's neither one thing nor the other, you don't know whether to laugh or cry. This has the word "romantic" before comedy drama, making you even more confused about how to react, especially as the two main protagonists have yet to meet. She sells perfume, he's an American writer but although Alice (Tamsin Greig) and Gil (Michael Landes) are destined to be with each other, they are still worlds apart.

At present, Love Soup is more comedy than drama, what with a solicitor's firm called Rush and Butcher ("sounds like Stalin's death camp") and the boy who urinates out of the window six or seven times a day, which is no joke when, like Alice, you live in the flat below.

Renwick isn't beyond making jokes about TV writers. As Gil is writing Love Soup, which he describes as "a comedy about relationships", we can perhaps conclude that there are autobiographical elements in the script. But, as Gil points out - and no doubt Renwick hopes that TV executives take note - "give good people the freedom to express themselves and you will get good work".

Daisy Miller, Darlington Civic Theatre

DAISY, Daisy, give me your answer do... and, like the song, the man half crazy about her and hoping to pop the question is strait-laced travel writer Frederick Winterbourne (a rather unemotional Richard Grieve). This first stage adaptation of the Henry James novel takes the slow scenic route to love's labours lost with plenty of well-costumed quotes and history notes. But a little less Byron and a bit more bloodlust is required as ex-EastEnder Scarlett Johnson's Daisy saunters casually through the male-female conventions of 19th century Europe. Saddled with Schenectady as her character's birthplace to pronounce, the rich man's daughter appears to offer a relationship to Winterbourne before settling on the diminutive Mr Giovanelli (confusingly played by Craig Giovanelli) as her soulmate in Rome. The US community, led by Mrs Miller (Shirley Anne Field in formidable mode), in Italy is outraged by this unchaperoned affair. Those unfamiliar with the book are left wondering what Dawn Keeler's adaptation is attempting to achieve. Having travelled a long way with the plot, the audience gains splinters in its posterior as the script never comes off the fence to decide if Daisy is audacious or innocent. Only Winterbourne's disapproving aunt Mrs Costello (Mary Sheen standing in for Jean Boht) and Daisy's mother Mrs Miller (Sandra Dickinson) are given anything really amusing to say. Abandoning the stylish carriage for a bicycle made for two was always a lot easier to understand.

l Runs until Saturday. Box Office: (01325) 486555.

Viv Hardwick

Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Billingham Forum

AS soon as the magnificent new curtain went up at the Forum, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's big, bouncy musical scooped up its audience for a fun ride to Old Testament Canaan. It's a well-known story, how Jacob's favourite son was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and rose to greatness in Egypt by interpreting Pharaoh's dreams. The songs are eminently singable and the lyrics are jokey in a way that the young audience appreciated; the costumes are brightly-coloured and glittery and there are one or two touches, like the camel with a fine bass singing voice, which keep the giggles coming.

Craig Adams is excellent as Joseph, his wide vocal range easily covering Lloyd Webber's music. Abigail Jaye is enchanting in the role of Narrator, her voice strong but not strident, telling her story with a close rapport with the audience. The brothers sing and dance their socks off to great effect, and Marlon Moore's Elvis-impersonating Pharaoh nearly stopped the show. The children's chorus, onstage throughout, was drawn from the Forum Theatre's own School of Performing Arts, and every one of them was absolutely brilliant. Smiling, singing, doing the hand-jive - and remaining motionless when not actually performing.

I'd forgotten how enjoyable this show is, and the packed house at the Forum showed their appreciation with three curtain calls. If you can manage to get tickets, do go and see it - I guarantee you'll come out smiling!

l Runs until Saturday. Box Office (01642) 552663.

Sue Heath