Tamsin Greig as “Dr. Caroline Todd”

Theoretically the first time I saw Tamsin Greig was in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere… but at the time I was probably too busy crushing on Laura Fraser to notice. As a big Sandman fan, I really enjoyed the show when it first aired, and felt that Fraser was the perfect actress to play ‘Death’, should an adaptation of her comic book adventures come along… but that’s sadly still only a pipedream at this point. Ah well, at least I still have my Chris Bachalo poster to gaze at! It seems strange now to think of Greig playing a vampish “Velvet”, the slinky life-stealing succubi, considering how successfully she’s cornered the market in a gawky-but-cute, unlucky-in-love types (via Black Books, Green Wing and Love Soup). I can’t recall her having any scenes with Paterson Joseph in GW, though they did face off when he played the ‘Marquis de Carabas’ back in London Below. He still manages to seem rather dashing and roguish, even when he’s playing IT consultants and middle managers! If they’d cast him as the new Dr Who, I might actually have started watching the show… especially if they’d cast Greig or Olivia Colman as his assistant… and got the GW writers in to punch up the scripts…

Todd’s torturous route to the altar in Green Wing provides the backbone of the series, but rewatching the boxset I can’t help feeling that her scenes are often the least funny, because her relationships have to be kept on a relatively sincere and solid emotional footing. Greig brings a rumpled charm and vulnerability to ‘Todd’, which is very sweet and endearing… especially when she’s pitted against passive-aggressively bitchy co-workers, such as Sarah Alexander’s character, ‘Angela’. Even if I personally prefer ‘Sue “Crazy Eyes” White’, Todd is undoubtedly the heart and soul of GW. Bless her, and her funny walk.