Big Bang Theory: Complete First Season [DVD] [2008] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

To be completely honest I didn't really like `The Big Bang Theory' when I saw it on TV first. I found the idea interesting and some of the jokes funny, but never really laughed out loud. Then I saw an episode from a later series and found it hilarious and went back to this with a fresh eye and I found it a LOT more appealing. Following genius' Sheldon, Leonard and their friends who live in a nerdy parallel universe to everyone else, this has some great science based jokes. Sheldon is easily the funniest character with his literal interpretation of everyday events and his cold, logical reasoning, but the other characters raise many a laugh as well. The actor who plays Wolowitz is especially funny as a perpetually horny nerd. To see how they want to interact with `normal' people (especially the hot neighbour Penny) is quite endearing as they battle between their high IQ look of the world and wanting to be involved in regular social situations and this makes for plenty of funny scenarios. Each episode is only about 18 minutes long and these are great to put on when you have a few minutes spare. If you know a bit of basic science then these jokes will be all the more funny, but it is in no way a prerequisite. Well worth a look and if you don't like it first time round it's worth trying again. Never has geek chic been so funny.

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If, like me, you don't trust yourself to get Sky because you're scared you'll never leave the house again, so you thought Freeview was a good alternative but now find it really isn't, allow me to introduce one of the few gems you can actually get on Freeview.

Squeezed in between E4s almost incessant diet of, like you know, teen dramas (One Tree Hill, The OC, 90210 and even Reaper on poorer episodes), lurks the fabulous Big Bang Theory.

Describing it as a series of 19 minute (yes, seriously folks - it must be good if the US networks figure they can squash 11 minutes of ads around it and still keep their audience) episodes in the life of two geeky scientists who live opposite a blonde waitress is as inadequate as saying Fawlty Towers was about a cross bloke in a hotel.

Firstly, the character of Dr Sheldon Cooper really is up there amongst the all-time great comic creations. Coupled with his much put-upon flatmate Leonard, they are eerily reminiscent of the great line in master and servant comic double acts from Laurel and Hardy to Steptoe and Son (but with better teeth). I don't know if the creators always intended it this way, but I suspect they suddenly found they had this unbelievably eccentric, idiosyncratic, gauche character with a brain the size of a planet and simply knew they had to wrap the whole series around him. How else can one of the funniest episodes be simply about all the other characters avoiding him because he has a cold?

Then, the four supporting characters are all well realised and much more than just foils for Sheldon, which is where so many character driven comedies fall down. I particularly love Howard, the seven stone jewish Love God and his very shouty (but never seen) mother.

Best of all, though, is the incredibly tight script. For those of us who mourn the passing of the great US TV wordplays - The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, NYPD Blue, Deadwood and even back to the likes of Murder One in the mid 90s - this is a real breath of fresh air. Not a word is wasted, not an inflection missed and occasionally even the line not spoken is very, very funny.

As the box blurb says, this is comedy with affection, where no-one is especially mean to anyone else in the search for funny lines and where you will probably recognise and identify with bits of each of the characters. So, if you're scanning your Free-To-Air TV schedule with dismay that there's no Shameless or Dexter on, ignore the Mock the Week repeats on Dave (how many times can you watch them???), give Big Bang Theory a try and discover another rare Freeview gem.

I'm not normally a fan of american 'canned laughter' sitcoms, but this programme had me howling. Being a bit of a geek myself I completely empathised with Leonard (and more worryingly, Sheldon at times). If you don't mind a raucous laughter track after every line give it a try, it's one of the most well written and intelligent sitcoms I've seen in a long time. I hope the american TV fatcats don't do what they normally do when they occassionally stumble onto a gem, cancel it after 2 series'.

Live long and prosper, Big bang theory.