A slice of Life is satisfying fare

Honesty is not always the best policy, as television director Tania discovered at the close of last week's absorbing debut of Life Isn't Always Ha Ha Hee Hee, which continues tonight (TV One, 9.35pm).

Tania (the lustrous Laila Rouass), who has long distanced herself from her Indian family and their values, turned her camera on her lifelong friends Chila and Sunita to make a documentary on the state of love and marriage between Indian women and men living in Britain.

Unbeknown to her, Sunita (played by Meera Syal, who wrote the novel on which this series is based, and is a stalwart of Brit-Indian comedies such as The Kumars at No 42 and Goodness Gracious Me) is deeply unhappy in her marriage to psychotherapist Akaash (Syal's real-life husband Sanjeev Bhaskar) and self-mutilates by slashing her arms with a razor.

Akaash has no idea and publicly likens Sunita to an old boiler; very reliable, low maintenance.

Meanwhile, Chila (Ayesha Darker) is a naive 35-year-old who has just married the saturnine Deepak (Ace Bhatti), the Prince Charming of Chigwell who has dated only English girls - except for Tania, which is a secret between the two of them.

The omens are not good for this marriage. Chila is desperate to get pregnant, and terrified of losing her dubious catch, who charmingly regards women thus: never trust something that bleeds once a month but doesn't die. He also reminds Chila she is no spring chicken.

Chila is as far as you can get from being a liberated woman in today's Britain, but Tania and Sunita also lament that their own struggles for independence when they were younger aren't appreciated by the next generation of girls, nor by gossipy old matriarchs who ooze disapproval.

Tania, who became engaged to her English boyfriend Martin (Matt Day) in last week's episode, screened the documentary at Deepak's bar, where Sunita's secretly filmed confession that she had had an abortion was revealed to all and sundry, including her appalled husband.

Footage of Chila's wedding also contained some deep and meaningful glances between Deepak and Tania, who later ended the doco-launch with a passionate clinch on the balcony, seen by Sunita - and Chila, whose pregnancy test has just come through as positive.

Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee is one of the best dramas on One. The characters are layered, flawed and interesting; it is exceptionally well written and acted, and it feels like watching real people struggling with life's problems in a real world.

The women portrayed in this show, well, Tania and Sunita at least, are strong but that can make life so much harder when the men haven't kept abreast, and don't want to. Expect major drama tonight.