LESS IS MORE

Every successful TV series has its 'Fawlty Towers' moment:  that moment when the original creators have neither the time or the inclination to continue writing every episode even though the show may be at the peak of its popularity.

For 'Stella', the Ruth Jones vehicle set in a small Welsh town, that moment came at the end of the first series.Whereas John Cleese took the bold and wholly correct decision to 'leave 'em wanting more' after just 12 episodes, Jones has decided to plough on regardless.  Although she continues to star in the show, she no longer writes it, having handed over the creative reins to a team of other writers with inevitable results. Instead of the close focus of series one, we now have a growing cast of supporting characters who, already broadly drawn, have degenerated into caricatures and grotesques.

The same deterioration in quality afflicted Paul Abbot's 'Shameless' when Abbot stopped being the principal writer, but since that ran for 11 series and spawned an American clone, no doubt Ruth Jones is keeping her fingers crossed fo a similar result.