Mrs Merton and Malcolm was a six-episode British sitcom produced by Granada Television, and transmitted by BBC One in 1999.
The central event of each episode is the visit from friend of the family Arthur Capstick, played by UK sitcom veteran Brian Murphy, who mentions something to Mrs Merton (usually about the death of a neighbour) and then forgets he's said it.
Steve Coogan is a constant presence, providing the voices for an unctuous disk jockey and Malcolm's motivational tapes, and also appearing in the last episode as the vicar.
Malcolm's miserly boss at the pet shop is called Geoffrey Perkins, then the Head of Comedy at the BBC.
The show achieved very good figures for a new sitcom, but the critical reception was generally hostile because of the manchild character, Malcolm.
Mrs Merton also dominates her invalid husband, who is completely bedridden and mute, and so barely exists as a character except as a lump under some bedsheets.
This aspect of the programme, combined with the lack of a laughter track (still relatively unusual for a UK sitcom at the time), caused some critics to regard the show as unbearably bleak.