British sitcom a little light on bite

If the "Golden Girls" moved to Cicely, Alaska, or Stars Hollow, or Everwood, or any one of TV's quirkiest rural towns, and then a contemporary Charles Dickens wrote a sitcom about them, the result might look something like BBC America's "Clatterford."

This British sitcom is from "Absolutely Fabulous" writer and star Jennifer Saunders, but it's worlds away from the urbane substance-abuse humor that made "AbFab" into a cult classic. The women on "Clatterford," which premieres tonight at 9, belong to a ladies' social club in a Devon town where the height of fashion is probably a home-crocheted sweater. The club is a little gathering of misfits run by Queenie (Doreen Mantle), a sweet little old control freak who can't seem to get a guest speaker who'll actually show up.

Nothing much happens on "Clatterford." Essentially, it's a loose, and too often aimless, vehicle for its stars. Saunders is Caroline, a would-be sophisticate who likes to drop famous names. Her former "AbFab" partner Joanna Lumley plays Delilah, a decrepit elderly lady whose teeth fall out when she eats. Dawn French, who costarred with Saunders in the 1980s series "French & Saunders," is the show's broadest character, Rosie, whose multiple personality disorder causes her extreme mood swings. And Sue Johnston is Sal, a former nurse who is pulled into the club after her husband dies.

None of the actresses hams it up to excess, which makes "Clatterford" more of an ensemble piece but ultimately less funny. The humor is spotty, and, indeed, some of the material is negligible and might have been edited out of a more tightly scripted sitcom. A few scenes work beautifully, such as the funeral of Sal's husband. No one in the church can sing on key or recite in unison; Delilah's organ playing is ghoulish; and Rosie can't stop herself from chiming in with Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!" when the priest reads from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

But many other scenes pass in a dull muddle, partly because the British accents can be heavy and the phrases unfamiliar to Americans, and partly because they lack definition and wit. The characters seem more like the beginnings of characters, and perhaps they will become sharper as the series develops. In the manner of the original "The Office," the first season of "Clatterford" is only seven episodes long, which makes the vagaries of tonight's premiere even less forgivable.

Saunders' vision of the show, as an affectionate, non abrasive comedy about the grotesqueries and nobility of country life, is promising enough, and so is the cast. Now her writing needs to rise to the occasion.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit boston.com/ae/tv/blog/.