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In a calm neighborhood of the city, a person stands in his driveway, wearing a vest and expressing his thoughts. “I feel my voice is fading. More invisible,” remarks the protagonist, staring up at the night sky. “Events have unfolded and at this point I believe unless I take action, I will continue in this quiet, unremarkable life.” His friend Paul, his closest companion, reflects on these words. “Nothing wrong with that,” he responds, his bathrobe moving with the wind. “Preferable to attempting to leave an impact only to wind up defacing it.”

For those exhausted by the chaos and rat-tat-tat of current streaming landscape, the show arrives similar to a warm cover and a comforting beverage of blackcurrant juice.

In line with its gentle leads, this comedy – a six-episode program developed by the writing duo, based on the novelist’s quiet 2019 novel – takes a dim view toward today's world; gazing disapprovingly over its prematurely middle-aged glasses on everything in the way of disturbances, abrupt changes or – perish the thought – excessive aspiration. The series rather, a celebration of shyness; a quiet celebration to people content to pootle around below the parapet. However. Leonard (one more sublimely idiosyncratic turn from the star) feels restless. He notices a growing “urge to throw open the entryways within my world … a little.” The loss of his mother has pulled the carpet away from his feet and this young man, an anonymous author, now realizes questioning the decisions that have brought him to his current situation (unattached; with a protective mustache; creating a range of children’s encyclopedias for a boss who ends messages with the phrase “goodbye for now”).

And so Leonard begins on a journey to find happiness, alongside his more outgoing friend Paul (Laurie Kynaston) functioning as his confidante, guide and co-conspirator in a recurring board games evening that serves both as symposium (“Is the pool warm due to children urinating, or do children urinate since it's warm?”) and refuge.

(How did Paul get his nickname? The reason is unknown. The source of the moniker seems forgotten in mystery. It could be that the postal worker previously devoured a snack very fast, or answered to a socially fraught incident by nervously peeling several snacks by biting into them).

Into Leonard’s gentle world bursts a vibrant character (the actress), a fresh spring-loaded co-worker who cheerily offers to eliminate Leonard’s appalling boss (Paul Reid) at a fire practice. The swift movement noticeable signals Leonard's peaceful routine experiencing a revolution.

In another part during the opening installment of a series not heavily plotted and more by what the under-30s might call “mood”, we meet Hungry Paul’s dad (the ever-wonderful Lorcan Cranitch), a battered sofa of a man who covertly observes, saves and reviews daytime quiz shows to impress his devoted partner using his trivia skills.

Shepherding viewers through all this gentle kindness is a narrator who closely resembles – and truly is – Julia Roberts. Yes, the celebrity. If you are thinking, “undoubtedly the inclusion of a big-name celebrity contradicts the program's low-key style and at first acts merely as a distraction?” you're right. However, Roberts acquits herself well, and phrases for example “Leonard's challenge is the missing a look of sudden insight” help ensure that first reservations give way though not complete approval, then at least acceptance.

Enough complaining for now. The series' spirit is in the right place: that place is “located on a seat alongside similar shows, indicating the duck it loves.” The program that ambles along in its sleeveless jumper, sometimes gazing upward at the stars, sometimes downward at its slippers, calmly assured that there is nothing on Earth as cheering as being alongside close companions.

Open the doors and windows in your existence, a little, and welcome it inside.