In Ordinary Lies (BBC1) you'll Meet Marty McLean, a nice chap stuck in British suburban hell.

He lives in a prim housing estate with his wife and children, in one of those 'new-build' houses of white and beige, of boxy rooms and suffocation. Each day he goes to work at JS Motors where he paces the windy car park with a salesman's smile fixed on his face, dishing out the same forced cheer to the customers. Later, he'll go home again to his sulky wife, who's just spent "200 notes" on clothes even though she never goes out.

So it's no wonder Marty likes to drown his sorrows. His jovial car salesman act masks his heavy drinking, but the mask is starting to slip: he and his wife argue constantly; he's drunk most nights; he's turning up late for work or phoning in sick, and his sales figures are down at the showroom.

So when his bad-tempered boss catches him crawling past the windows, hoping to slip into work one day, unnoticed and very late, he's hauled into the office and given a final warning: turn up late once more and you're sacked!

Marty is played by comedian Jason Manford, and the role is well cast because Marty is a fool. He can't quit drinking, and he's treated like a child at work. He's also tormented by things he can't possibly control, such as his wife's illness which leaves him as the family's sole breadwinner. Yet he isn't a noble, trustworthy provider. Instead, he gives the impression of being an overgrown boy, floundering and confused in the adult world. And so he drinks, and fights with his wife who's disgusted by his constant nights out.

One morning, out of "spite", his wife refuses to wake him up for work. He's still sleeping off last night's excess, and so she abandons him to it, not knowing he's on a final warning from the office. Of course, he's horribly late for work and arrives at the gate realising he can't possibly go in. He has a mortgage, children and a sick wife. He's the sole breadwinner. He simply cannot lose his job.

Here all the bumbling, chubby jovial elements strip away from Marty's face as he hides behind a corner and sees he'll need to tell a lie - a spectacular lie - to save his job and his family.

He rings the receptionist and says he can't come to work as his wife died in the night. His face is white and grim. He's appalled at his deception, but feels trapped.

Then we veer away from his ethical dilemma and zoom back to comedy. He goes home and settles down to an unexpected day off which he intends to fill with computer games. Later, he delivers a lecture on the misery of teen pregnancy to his daughter's new boyfriend, and in this speech you can see Marty again clutching at the role of responsible adult and imposing father - but we know he's a skiver and a drunk, and a liar too. He's back to being the fool, and one whom we're now keenly watching to see how and when his lie will trip him up.

This was an enjoyable story, with a jaunty, humorous tone, but I was frustrated with how it kept flirting with darkness but then backing away. So much more could have been done with Marty's drinking, his one-night stand, his desperation at his small, suburban life and his terrible need to keep running the rat race. These issues were just skimmed over, and so the main point of interest became the logistics of the lie: how can he keep up the pretence of a dead wife? How can he fend off the white lillies and the helpful colleagues who keep arriving at his door? What will he do when he's found out?

Frustratingly he didn't do much when he was discovered. We just saw him and his wife enter JS Motors, hand-in-hand, to confess his lie. And there it ended. There was no great denouement.

But the damp squib ending wasn't too much of a blow because this is a six-part series, and each week will focus on the tangled lies of a different member of staff at the car showroom.

This first episode very cleverly introduced the rest of the cast and left little glinting hints of their own enticing back-stories. Max, the rich boss, is going through a poisonous marital breakdown. He's also having an affair with Beth, whose own husband is missing, and she's been receiving troubling, silent phone calls which she suspects are from the vanished hubby. In trying to trace him, she discovered he made a series of phone calls to one of her colleagues, a young and very attractive woman.

Yes, there's a whole snake pit of lies thrashing and hissing down at JS Motors and we'll get a new one each week.