TELEVISION / Right of reply: Carla Lane answers negative criticism of her new sitcom, Luv (Tuesdays 8pm BBC1)

'I don't want to give the impression that I can't take criticism, because I can; it always comes at the start of a new show and I've never had a good review from a tabloid. But I do hate it when the critics become personal, when they say, not that they don't like the programme (which would be fine), but that she is a crap writer and what has she got on the BBC chiefs that would stop them sacking her. Also they haven't given it a chance: most of their criticism wouldn't stand up after the fourth episode.'

Unoriginality? 'There's absolutely nothing about the family in Luv that has appeared in anything I've written about before. The fact that they have Liverpool accents doesn't mean it's like Bread. But the critics also say that, because I've got a nice big house, I can't know about life.'

Not funny? 'I don't sit down and think, 'I'm going to write something very funny.' I think of something desperate that people will identify with and apply my own particular sense of humour, my 'brushstrokes'. I think the tabloids get bored of my brushstrokes.'