For half-an-hour last night, one of two things occurred – I either misplaced my sense of humour down the side of the sofa or this Victorian pastiche lacked all the necessary ingredients to induce belly-aching laughter … not even a giggle … or a wry smile.

I fear it was the latter of the two as my Great Expectations for this new series soon turned to a Bleak House of horrors.

Despite boasting prime-time billing, expensive period sets and a comedy award ceremony who’s who among its cast, ironically it was the anaemic script-writing that proved the demise of this Dickensian spoof.

The Victorian adventure continued from the one-off Christmas special and this time very silly shopkeeper Jedrington Secret-Past (Robert Webb) fell under the boney clasp of suspicious new business partner Harmswell Grimstone (Tim McInnerny).

This led to immediate wealth and fortune, massively oversized newspapers and a place at St Nasty’s boarding school for his son. Meanwhile Jedrington’s wife Conceptiva (Katherine Parkinson) swooned her way through the show before forcing to end it all at, err, End-It-All-Dock after it was revealed she is, alas, French. What the Dickens?

Despite strong performances from Webb and Parkinson, who seemed desperate to inject a bit of star quality into proceedings, it felt like they were reading from a rough draft of Mark Evans’ script as the harebrained jokes served to debase the Victorian writer rather than celebrate him.

To quote some examples, a letter to Conceptiva simply read: “I know your secret past, Mrs Secret Past.”

When persuading Jedrington to join his business venture, Harmswell lamented: “When I was your age, I was the same age as you are now.”

And a servant falling off a ladder while trying to clean the windows is hardly the sort of thing that classes as ground-breaking comedy.

Now I am by no means averse to all things silly and would happily place the likes of Shooting Stars and Trigger Happy TV into the vault of comedy genius.

However, silly comedy needs substance, and last night’s show was the comedy equivalent of candy floss.

What I found more appealing was the more visual jokes, such as Jedrington hiring page turners for his over-sized posh newspaper, and a butler to hold a glass of wine to his mouth.

And when Conceptiva discovered her secret was about to be revealed, she stumbled across the hall, crashing into everything in her path, including some delicately-stacked playing cards.

Although this was merely a light-hearted take on the Dickensian theme, what would the great novelist have thought of a ‘comedy’ plot based on the shame of being French?

Surely the BBC can do much better with a pre-watershed comedy?

Ah, they already have. If you are looking for a more relevant, sparkling and amusing display of social comment on events and figures from bygone years, may I suggest the award-winning Horrible Histories on CBBC.

Melissa Coombs