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In a calm area of the city, a man stands on the pavement, wearing a sleeveless jumper and sharing his feelings. “I notice my voice is fading. Less noticeable,” says Leonard, looking into the darkness. “One thing’s led to another and now it seems without a change, my life will proceed in this quiet, unremarkable life.” His friend Paul, his closest and only friend, considers these words. “That's perfectly fine,” he replies, his robe flapping in the breeze. “Preferable to striving for recognition and ending up damaging things.”

For anyone exhausted by the chaos and fast pace of current streaming landscape, this series arrives similar to a foil blanket and a comforting beverage of Ribena.

Like its gentle leads, the series – a six-part comedy developed by the writing duo, based on the author’s understated story – takes a dim view toward today's world; looking critically through its prematurely middle-aged glasses at anything related to unnecessary noise, quick actions or – heaven forfend – an abundance of ambition. The program is, instead, a celebration of shyness; a quiet celebration to people satisfied to wander away from attention. However. The character (another distinctly original portrayal by the actor) feels restless. He senses a growing “need to open the entryways within my world … just a bit.” The recent death of his mother has whisked the rug from under his slippers and this young man, an anonymous author, now finds himself doubting the decisions that have brought him to where he is (single; with a protective mustache; creating several children’s encyclopedias for a boss who ends correspondence with the phrase “see you later”).

And so Leonard starts on a journey for personal satisfaction, alongside his more outgoing Paul (the actor) functioning as his trusted friend, life coach and ally in a weekly board games evening that serves both as debate (“Does the pool feel warm due to children urinating, or do children urinate as it's heated?”) and sanctuary.

(Why “Hungry” Paul? It's unclear. The source of the moniker seems forgotten in history. Perhaps he on one occasion consumed some food very fast, or answered to a tense moment by hastily opening four scotch eggs using his teeth).

Entering Leonard's quiet life comes Shelley (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), a new energetic associate who cheerily offers to eliminate Leonard’s appalling boss (the actor) at a fire practice. That whooshing sound you can hear represents Leonard's calm life undergoing a shake-up.

In other scenes in the initial show of a series driven less by plot and more by what younger viewers could describe as “atmosphere”, we meet Hungry Paul’s dad (the consistently great the actor), a battered sofa of a man who privately views, tapes and rewatches television game programs to amaze his devoted partner with his general knowledge.

Leading viewers through all this gentle kindness we hear a narrator that is unmistakably – and truly is – the Hollywood icon. Indeed, Julia Roberts. In case you're considering, “undoubtedly the inclusion of a major Hollywood star contradicts the program's low-key style and at first acts merely as a diversion?” you would be correct. However, Roberts acquits herself well, and dialogue for example “The issue with Leonard is that he lacks a ‘eureka’ face” help ensure that first reservations fade if not quite to appreciation, then at least acceptance.

But that’s enough grumbling currently. The show's core is in the right place: the right place being “resting on a bench next to the Detectorists, indicating the duck it loves.” The program that strolls leisurely in its sleeveless jumper, sometimes gazing upward toward the sky, occasionally down toward the ground, quietly confident that there is nothing in the world as uplifting as being alongside close companions.

Throw open the portals of your life, a little, and welcome it inside.