"We both enjoy awkwardness with a bit of heart"

"Word-of-mouth sensation"? That cap certainly fits Colin From Accounts as far as I'm concerned. It arrived on BBC iPlayer to little fanfare - but a few glowing recommendations from friends later and I gobbled it up in the space of three nights.

It helps that it's only eight half-hour episodes, of course - so much TV these days seems to demand the sort of commitment I'm rarely able to give. But I wouldn't have wolfed it down so rapidly if it wasn't so good.

Much of that comes down to the chemistry and pitch-perfect dialogue between onscreen and real-life couple Patrick Bramall and Harriet Dyer, who spoke to the Guardian's Michael Hogan about the creative process, content and snowballing success of the "slow-burn smash".

As Hogan observes, the show manages to incorporate a reasonable number of low-brow incidents involving bodily functions and body parts without descending into cringe or gross-out comedy, and "the duo's writing deftly avoids cliche and cloying sentiment yet remains sweet-hearted", drawing inspiration from Catastrophe and Girls. (The only real lapse in quality, I felt, was in Episode 7, which was strangely jarring in the context of the overall narrative.)

That the show has won over so many people is perhaps particularly surprising given its name. The reason why it's called Colin From Accounts does become apparent, but it hardly sells the show. That said, it's rather better than what Dyer reveals was the working title: Dog With Wheels.

The news that a second series is in development is to be welcomed. Here's hoping that it builds on, rather than detracts from, the almost perfectly formed first.