House

Hallmark Channel, Sundays at 9 pm and Mondays at 1 am http://www.hallmarkchannel.co.uk/ Currently showing in the US on Fox www.fox.com/house/

Rating:

At only 45, Hugh Laurie is well on the way to becoming a national treasure. His credentials are impeccable. Old Etonian, member of a losing Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race crew, hilarious portrayer of upper class twits in Blackadder. And in the 1990s, playing Bertie Wooster to Stephen Fry's Jeeves, he was lovable Englishness personified.

So when the BMJ sent preview tapes of his new show on a satellite channel, I was looking forward to a cheerful evening. OK, it was a US series, and OK, he was playing a doctor, but the theme would surely be Gussie Fink-Nottle meets Malibu Beach, and I was going to enjoy it.

Never very adept with the video player, I watched the first few minutes with no sound. First surprise. This was Laurie unshaven, in 101 Dalmatians mode. Remember how scary he was as Cruella de Ville's henchman, intent on drowning those puppies? Then I …