The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle (BBC Two, Thursday, 9pm) has had a lukewarm reception on these pages and, in my opinion, quite unfairly. I’m now two episodes in with this dark sitcom which revolves around the grotesque world of daytime talk shows, and I’ve got a feeling that many are missing the point of the show.

I have to confess that I’ve never been a fan of Jennifer Saunders’ work, but something in me always wanted to like her. It seems this bleak satire on, well, Jeremy Kyle essentially, is what I’ve been waiting for. On the surface, this is a thoroughly depressing programme. Mean, calculated characters create moral vacuums and care so little for their fellow human that it is, at times, almost unbearable to watch. However, take off the pinko specs and start thinking like Brass Eye and Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe… then one of the finest shows on the box will reveal itself.

I have hooted my trap right off at the hard hitting diatribes against media from the pen of Chris Morris and Mr Brooker. They show the horrific side of TV and media and instead of going easy and giving it a gentle ribbing, they steam in with boots flying to kick everyone before someone bans them or gags them. I never ever thought Jennifer Saunders would be in the same category as these two, but that’s exactly what her Vivienne Vyle character is. Not so much a thumb in the eye of those she’s come across in the murky world of TV, but rather, an anvil to the back of the head… and it’s brilliant.

Vyle is so well observed that at times, one wonders if a writ is winging its way to the creators of the show. It’s so close to the knuckle that I’m almost certain many of the wrongs in the show are real. Of course, the names have been changed to protect the lawsuit happy, but it’s clear that many of the characters haven’t been plucked from thin air.

What this show does superbly is to underline the insane decisions that go into making a TV show. It’s part ruthlessness and part nauseating exercises in PR. Those with a brain have known of the damage done by these tawdry day-time programmes, and Chris Morris has touched on the format in his Brass Eye episodes (remember ‘Good AIDS’ and ‘they were making sex’?), but Vivienne Vyle is the first show to send a heat seeking missile to the format without fear of retaliation. It’s brave and bold with all the gruesome bits left in. To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson… The entertainment business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs…