Notorious for its dark humour, the show follows narcissistic sociopath Jill Tyrell (Julia Davis) alongside her moronic personal assistant Linda (Ruth Jones).

She uses this to manipulate new neighbour Cathy Cole (Rebecca Front), who suffers from MS, and her husband Don (Angus Deayton), a doctor and the man with whom Jill becomes increasingly obsessed.

When Jill finds out Terry is recovering, she admits him to a hospice and tells all her friends that he has died, and stages a twisted funeral where she gets all the attention.

When Jill hears of this she throws a farewell coffee morning for them, livening it up by performing a pole dance routine, whilst the neighbours watch in horror.

As he chokes on it, she tells Glen that if he loves her he would agree to take the blame for Gordon's and Terry's deaths and persuades him to make a telephone confession to the police.

Jill steals a caravan from Linda and pursues Don to Bude, Cornwall, where he and Cathy are trying fix their marriage at a New-Age retreat called The Trees.

After Jill's lies are once again exposed, she is chased to a cliff, where Cathy confronts her about her fake pregnancy and her repeated attempts to seduce Don.

[5] The Guardian called it "an exquisitely vile comic creation" and adding that "The Office might have popularised the comedy of embarrassment, but Nighty Night has moved it on.

"[6] The Times called it "a blistering wall of superbly unredeemed cruelty that manages to trample over every social convention in a pair of cheap stilettos.

Ratings slipped sharply from thereon, however, with the final two episodes registering fewer than 400,000 viewers and falling outside of the channel's top 10 shows both weeks.

[8] In June 2006 it was announced that Sex and the City creator Darren Star would write and be executive producer of a US version, which has been commissioned for a pilot script.