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These days, it's difficult to get to my TV, what with my teenage daughter dominating the viewing schedules. She's at an age where she has a string of television series on the go ("Lost", "The Lost Room", "The OC" etc.) and wobetide anyone that comes between her and her programmes. One of the beneficial side effects of her small screen addiction is that she will rope me and my good lady into the occasional, watchable series and this is exactly what happened when we discovered the mutual delights of "Ugly Betty". Shown on Channel 4 and E4, the programme follows the adventures of Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), a young Latino woman from the Queens area of New York. Having got a job as an executive assistant at MODE fashion magazine in swish Manhattan, appointed by Bradford Meade (Alan Dale) in order to stop the womanizing Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius) from bedding any further personal assistants (based on the premise that she is ugly), the series follows her comic capers amongst the superiors of the fashion industry and contrasts her life in Queens with that of the jetset of middle Manhattan.

"Ugly Betty" is essentially another fish-out-of-water scenario that works well. It's staged in separate, disparate worlds, each with their own contrasting issues and opportunities and, of course, the concept of someone supposedly ugly (needless to say, Ferrera is actually glamorous in real life) operating successfully in the superficial world of high fashion is meant to underline the thin veneer of skin deep beauty amongst the movers and shakers of the upper echelons of society. In essence, the programme sets out to underline once more that beauty is only skin deep. The programme has been a huge hit in the States. Winning Golden Globes, SAG and DGA awards amongst others, it has only been going since its premier on ABC in September 2006. Still in its first series, the idea for the programme was spawned from the Colombian telenovela "Yo soy Betty, la fea" ("I am Betty, the ugly") and adapted for American audiences by producer Salma Hayek.

Where the series wins is in its characterizations. America Ferrera is inspirational in the title role. Clumsy, nervous and sometimes coy, she has a dignity that shines through in her constant battle to be accepted in the beautiful world of Mode Magazine. Her dark, stilted hair style and over the top teeth braces make her look plain and not a little scary whilst her "Guadalajara" poncho and complete disregard for fashion sense mark her out as the

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