Good actors who survive shocking scripts

It's one thing for actors to play 'Hamlet' or Chekhov. But perhaps a better test of an actor's ability is when they manage to survive a truly shocking script and all around them are sinking without trace.

There have been several outstanding examples on TV recently. Philip Glenister hardly needs more plaudits for his terrific performance as Gene Hunt in 'Life on Mars', one of the outstanding TV performances of the past decade. But he's now managed to deliver an equally good performance in the wretched BBC 1 sequel, 'Ashes to Ashes', with a bad script which has reduced Keeley Hawes, Dean Andrews and Marshall Lancaster to playing one-dimensional characters going nowhere. And yet Glenister still shines.

More extraordinary still is Tom Hollander's performance as the foul-mouthed agent in the execrable 'Freezing' (BBC 2, 20-22 February). The show is like watching a car crash in slow motion. The idea is deeply embarrassing: American actress Elizabeth McGovern plays American actress Elizabeth McGovern who is desperate for a break in, well, anything (episode 1 ends with her agent pleading for her to have a chance in a small part in doc show, 'Holby City'). Her husband, Matt (Hugh Bonneville) is an editor at a publishing firm who is hoping to make it as a writer. Richard E Grant, Stephen Frears and (o god) Alan Yentob appear as themselves. According to the Radio Times it's an 'urban comedy ... about a 40-something couple whose careers aren't as glamorous as they would like them to be.' And yet Tom Hollander alone emerges smelling of roses in a high-octane, laugh-out-loud performance as Elizabeth's agent, playing one of those Greek mythological creatures, half-shark, half-human. It's not that his lines are better than anyone else's. James Wood's script is even-handed in that sense, everyone gets terrible lines. But Hollander's performance is one of the most watchable on TV at the moment.

Celia Imrie and Phyllida Law manage something just as extraordinary: turning out terrific performances in the ghastly 'Kingdom', ITV's fantasy world of cosy small-town Englishness. Perhaps it's time to introduce a new category for next year's Bafta's: best performance in a dreadful show.