He's happily married to wife Susanna but when she goes away to visit her mother over Christmas, Russel drunkenly stumbles into an affair with flower shop worker Elly (Kate Ashfield) and finds himself at the centre of a love triangle.

This question of infidelity was the dilemma that stoked the central plot of this six-part series, but it was not the only running strand.

Russel also had to deal with his peculiar agent Alistair, the source of all his uninspiring composing jobs, while Elly was the subject of attention from her lesbian colleague Camilla (Josie Lawrence) at the flower shop.

The casting of Alan Davies as Russel split audiences, with some warming to his likeability even when playing an adulterer, but others finding it hard to square his low-key performance with his 'sex-god' character.

The glossy production values and lack of any laughter track both certainly lent the show a sophisticated air, but they also laid bare the comparatively few laugh-out-loud moments and despite the strong cast and stylish direction it ran for only one series.