The Eustace Bros (BBC1): WHAT'S in a name? Quite a lot if you're trying to relaunch a series that failed to capture viewers' imagination the first time around.

Paradise Heights fell between two stools as a comedy-drama, being neither funny nor dramatic enough to justify either part of the label.

But I'd question the wisdom of retitling the second series The Eustace Bros. This is far too close to The Useless Bros for comfort - and you know what TV critics are like at making cheap jibes about poor defenceless programmes. Remember how Ross Kemp's dreary SAS series Ultimate Force became known as Ultimate Farce?

I confess that the original series is residing in some dark, remote corner of my mind, so I feel unable to say if the new one is any better. The best I can say is that it wasn't as bad as I feared.

Brothers Charles (Neil Morrissey), Clive (Charles Dale) and Richard (Ralf Little) are now in the house clearance business. "A new page is being turned and on that page a glorious chapter will be written," they declared, reflecting what the BBC Drama department hopes will happen to the new-look Paradise Heights.

Their business is flogging desirable items such as boxes of household cleaners, old telephones and fake fur leopardskin coats (the dentures left in the pocket are thrown in for nothing).

When Charlie is told that he'll be auctioneer and brother Richard will be his assistant, he asks: "Will he have to wear a spangly outfit and hand me things?".

The opening episode involved a scheme to remove Victorian oak floorboards from a house in the middle of an Army firing range. Charlie was keen to undertake the mission to impress Melissa, who runs a reclamation yard. It doesn't sound very glamorous but that doesn't prevent womanising Charlie fancying her.

Meanwhile youngest brother Richard decides he's "definitely made the right decision" to join the family business instead of going to university. If he believes that his brainpower wasn't sufficient for further education, anyway.

Creator and writer Ashley Pharoah doesn't aim very high with jokes about Swedish air stewardesses, teeth damaged during oral sex, and making Clive a single dad with a son who asks embarrassing questions such as "Why did you scream during the night?" in a reference to Charlie's night of passion (and broken tooth) with one of the foreign fly girls. All very reminiscent of one of those rude, crude Confessions comedies from the 1970s.

It was all jolly enough but I doubt that the new look Paradise Heights has the ability to last. It will limp along until the end of this series and then be put out of its misery.

Published: 16/07/2003