It’s probably fair to say that ITV isn’t really known for its comedy – in fact it’s often said that their last truly great comedy series was Rising Damp. Quite a while ago, then. They are at least more actively searching for decent comedy programming nowadays though, and their most recent foray into the genre is this: FM. Have they finally got a winner on their hands?

Related: FM Picture Gallery

First the setting. This comedy takes place at an indie radio station – you know the type, XFM essentially. So the studios are filled with DJs and producers who like to think they’re incredibly cool, but are ultimately rather in awe of the bands who come in for sessions, as they’re living the rock ‘n’ roll life that they have just missed out on.

Delusion is a great starting point for comedy, of course, and there’s plenty of that around here. Chris O’Dowd plays Lindsay Carol, the main host and, perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s certainly the best thing about this show. The man has funny bones, and as a DJ out of his depth (but just about fooling the similarly deluded fellows around him) he does his best to raise a smile. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a whole lot to work with here – the script is pretty pedestrian, and seems to rely on the idiocy and inanity of Lindsay’s co-host Dom Cox (Kevin Bishop) for its ‘edginess’.

I can’t say I didn’t laugh at all, but almost all of the good in this episode came from Chris O’Dowd’s doomed attempts to impress his co-workers, and he shouldn’t be having to carry the show alone. Even Nina Sosanya, so utterly wonderful as Bellino in Russell T Davies’ Casanova, and warm and engaging in Nathan Barley, seems to be on auto-pilot as grumpy producer Jane Edwards.

It’s always hard to judge a series on the opening episode, as characters and settings need to be established and laughs can sometimes play second fiddle to getting all of that out of the way. But there are a couple of inherent problems here, in particular the fact that the characters are going to be incredibly hard to care about – especially with no Tim-from-The-Office-style ‘voice of reason’ character voicing the audience’s views.

I’ll keep an eye on this one, because the setting should provide plenty of great comic material and Chris O’Dowd’s character has lots of potential. But on first viewing, this isn’t going to massively improve the network’s reputation for comedy output.