Basil muncher bouncing on the exercise ball is real star of Can’t Cope Won’t Cope

Can’t Cope Won’t Cope’s Lorraine (played by Sheila Moylette) is our Lady of the Perpetual Cardigan, as glamorous as a Hoover, and riotously funny, writes Terry Prone.

CARDS on the table. We love Lorraine. Lorraine is our new best friend. We adore her. Admittedly, we’ve met her only twice. Fleetingly, at that. We don’t know her surname. Don’t know where she’s from. Not that sure what her job is, although it’s in something financial. Just know she has to stay.

I mean, just look at her. Not two hands higher than a duck, she is, with a pudding-bowl fringe on her and a roundy pop-eyed face filled with self-righteous curiosity. She’s so prissy from first sighting, you just know she’s going to drink green or peppermint tea when everybody else is stiffening themselves with double espressos. It’s no surprise that when the entire staff of the office where she works go to a nightclub and are knocking back shots like an ad for instant alcoholism, she’s sitting in the middle of them all, solemnly drinking milk. Because it’s healthy.