THIS is almost certainly a romantic comedy that will transfer very neatly to TV. The story concerns two couples where the husband of one couple goes off with the wife of the other. Ray Winstone plays a used car dealer, Kerry Fox (Angel At My Table, Shallow Grave), a writer who meet when both are involved in a car accident, as both fight for a car space. Little do they know that worse troubles are in store: both have a spouse who has been playing away.

Naturally, they both begin hating each other after the car incident, but no prizes for guessing the twist. Ray Winstone - normally the cockney hard man - shows a greater range than shown previously, and Kerry Fox is particularly good as the spurned woman early on. The best character is Jennifer Saunders' continuation of her Ab-Fab routine as a yuppie publisher not geared for the Northern countryside of Hebdon Bridge where the film is set.

The film tries very hard to be a likeable tragi-comedy, feelgood but with heartstopping melodramatic moments thrown in. The plot is flimsy at best, and everything just falls into place just a little too neatly for comfort (for example, Fox has a gay lodger, and his new-found acting career and sudden propensity to hold boisterous parties in his landlady's flat naturally don't grate on her sensitivities at any point).

Mellor has gone for a chalk and cheese theme: opposites attract. It's hardly original, of course, and fairly predictable from two reels in. She also goes overboard at the end, piling on the emotion as if the audience still need to have its heartstrings tugged in what is an already highly-strung romantic comedy up to that point.