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In a quiet area of the city, a person is standing in his driveway, dressed in a vest and voicing his thoughts. “It seems like my voice is fading. Less noticeable,” states Leonard, staring up at the night sky. “Circumstances have evolved and at this point I feel like if I don’t do something, I’ll just carry on in this simple, peaceful routine.” His friend Paul, his closest companion, ponders this statement. “Nothing wrong with that,” he replies, his dressing gown swaying gently. “Preferable to striving for recognition and ending up damaging things.”

For anyone tired by the bluster and fast pace of today’s TV landscape, Leonard and Hungry Paul steps in similar to a foil blanket with a hot drink of a sweet cordial.

Similar to its harmless protagonists, the series – a six-episode program developed by its authors, inspired by the novelist’s understated 2019 novel – looks disapprovingly at modern life; gazing disapprovingly above its spectacles toward anything related to unnecessary noise, sudden movements or – heaven forfend – an abundance of ambition. The series on the contrary, a celebration of shyness; a subtle homage to people satisfied to amble along below the parapet. However. He (another distinctly original turn by the actor) feels restless. He feels a creeping “need to open the openings within my world … a little.” The passing of his beloved mother has whisked the rug from under his slippers and the 32-year-old, a writer for others, now finds himself reconsidering the choices that directed him to his current situation (unattached; with a protective mustache; creating a range of children’s encyclopedias for an employer who ends correspondence using the words “ciao for now”).

And so Leonard starts himself on a quest to find happiness, with the slightly bolder Hungry Paul (the actor) acting as his confidante, mentor and co-conspirator in a recurring board games evening that serves both as debate (“Is the pool warm from kids relieving themselves, or is it that kids pee because it’s warm?”) and refuge.

(What's the origin of "Hungry" Paul? It's unclear. The source of the moniker seems forgotten in mystery. Maybe the postal worker once ate some food very fast, or reacted to a tense moment by panic-peeling some food items using his teeth).

Entering Leonard's quiet life bursts a new colleague (the actress), a recent lively colleague who cheerily offers to kill Leonard’s appalling boss (the character) in a workplace safety exercise. That whooshing sound you can hear is Leonard’s gentle world being turned upside down.

Elsewhere during the opening installment of the comedy not heavily plotted and more by what younger viewers may refer to as “vibes”, viewers encounter Paul's father (the consistently great the actor), a worn-out individual who secretly watches, records then replays trivia competitions to amaze his loving spouse through his fact recall.

Shepherding the audience throughout this gentle kindness we hear a narrator who closely resembles – and truly is – Julia Roberts. Yes, the star. Should you wonder, “surely the use of a major Hollywood star clashes with the program's low-key style and starts off as just an interruption?” you would be correct. Nevertheless, the actress performs admirably, and phrases like “Leonard's challenge is the missing a look of sudden insight” assist in making sure that initial doubts give way if not full admiration, then at least acceptance.

But that’s enough grumbling for now. Leonard and Hungry Paul’s heart is well-intentioned: the right place being “resting on a bench next to the Detectorists, indicating the duck it loves.” This is a show that moves gently in its sleeveless jumper, occasionally looking up toward the sky, occasionally down at its feet, serenely certain that there is nothing in life as uplifting as passing time with good friends.

Throw open the portals of your life, just a bit, and welcome it inside.