Peep Show might be over but Robert Webb quickly returns to the sitcom fray in this one-off pilot as part of the Landmark Sitcom Season and there is plenty to enjoy here. If, that is, you like your comedy extremely dark and nasty.

Divorced Jack (Webb) has found happiness with fiancée Sara (Melanie Lynskey), but his money-grabbing, unhinged ex-wife and mother of his kids Hillary (Victoria Hamilton - who was also scarily unhinged in the C4 one-off The Circuit last week) is determined to destroy his future. And while Jack wants Hillary out of their lives, Sara has made it her personal crusade to build a relationship with her for the sake of children Ava (Holly Earl) and Max (Archie Lyndhurst - one look at his droopy eyes and it is pretty obvious who his famous father is).

This could be a simple sitcom about a post-divorce relationship but creator/writer Julie Thacker Scully has come up with something much more vicious. Jack and Hillary don't just hurl abuse at each other, they also fantasise about doing extreme violence to each other. Jack, for instance, dreams of strangling Hillary and making her dig her own grave before shooting her. Beheading is also a popular option. Thacker Scully has previously written for The Simpsons and the fast-paced fantasy sequences are certainly cartoonish, but more brutal than anything you'll ever see in Springfield.

It is certainly not light comedy, though some niceness is provided - for most of the episode - by Sara and there is also a piece of sitcom history here with Peter Egan of Ever Decreasing Circles fame guesting as Jack's genial father George. 

Our Ex-Wife is certainly a strong flavour of sitcom. It won't be to everyone's tastes that's for sure. But kudos for BBC2 for trying something different in their current pilots season after two very conventional domestic sitcoms in Home from Home and Meet The Coopers.