Good publicity can be a double-edged sword. Whoever described this group as "a gut-stringed Weather Report", for example, aroused much interest but only to invite certain disappointment at showtime. Yes, they do play pieces by Wayne Shorter (Infant Eyes) and Ornette Coleman (Lonely Woman), but in a drawing room style more reminiscent of the Fawlty Towers theme.

Their leader, cellist Ben Davis, writes interesting scores for what is really a string quartet plus drum and bass, but he is no Joe Zawinul, either as writer or improviser. And for all his gentle cool at the drumkit, Seb Rochford is no rhythmic powerhouse in the Manolo Badrena mould. He, Davis and bassist Richard Pryce supply stately staccato patterns beneath the graceful melodies of Jenny May Logan's viola and the violins of Emma Smith and Vicky Fifield. All very civilised.

Their violin solos on original themes (Double Dares, How do Birds Hear Music?) are charming but bereft of jazz vocabulary and short of heat. The remedy? Listen to Michal Urbaniak, Jean-Luc Ponty or masters such as Stephane Grappelli and the great Stuff Smith.

Full marks for ingenuity, though. Not many jazz groups could soundtrack a TV costume drama. They fully deserve their table at tomorrow's Mercury Prize finals. For a jazz group to win the thing, though, would really take the Basquiat.