The funniest thing on the BBC for a long time

Even funnier than the fake tragedies in the soaps, this one deserved canned laughter at the appropriate moments. The empty-headed female vicar made Dawn French seem like Glenda Jackson. The real events were comic enough, but nowhere nearly as funny as the BBC's effort - 'based on a true story' but with some invention for the purposes of dramatization. It wasn't dramatic, nor was it moving. The token 'people of colour' in the estate crowds, and the last minute jab at the previous Tory PM, said it all. Why not the customary 'if you have been affected by the issues raised in this programme, phone the BBC helpline on...'? Omitting this was a shy admission that 'The Moorside' wasn't really to be taken that seriously, certainly not by the nice suburban middle-classes watching it on cable TV.