Alexander Kirk

Radio Times review

The adult storybook series continues a strong season with this second tranche of tales. Ben Miller is up first, reading Alexander Kirk's Man's Best Friend, a decidedly weird yarn about a Victorian gent (hilariously acted out by the always brilliant Kevin Eldon) who transplants the brain of his much-loved dog into the body of a beautiful woman.

Then comes Sue Perkins doing Melissa Bubnic's Return to Sender, a modern tale of a shophaholic called Daisy who meets a kindred spirit - but with disastrous results.

These stories are oddly moral as well as decidedly wacky, and fans will not be disappointed. There is also a Bake Off line inserted into Perkins's story that ices this particular cake very nicely indeed.

A welcome return for the second series of Alexander Kirk's bittersweet stand-alone comedies of grown-up men who live with their mothers. This first story stars Mark Gatiss as a hopeless Michael Jackson impersonator who gets voted through to the second round of a TV talent competition just because the British public wants to laugh at him. Does this sound painfully familiar?

Probably the only sitcom this year in which episode titles are carried off by binmen, letters are dictated with soundtrack and effects, and epic battles of good and evil are waged by gas salesmen, House of Rooms is a pleasingly off-kilter affair with lo-fi charm to burn. Jones the writer and performer has the rare gift of being appealing quirky without apparently trying too hard, while Cordelia Bugeja is adorable and faintly sinister as Milton's tongue-tied object of desire. Susie Blake (aged up convincingly as Milton's mum) and Alexander Kirk (as weirdo tenant Tony) round out an impressive cast of oft-unappreciated performers in one Comedy Showcase we fervently hope receives a full commission.

Stephanie Cole and David Ryall star in the last of a quartet of plays (each by a different writer) about grown-up children who (for various and recognisable reasons) still live at home. This one's by Alexander Kirk, about a skinflint son and a more impulsive mum. Each has been interesting, sometimes touching and remarkable for showcasing the impressive range of acting talent among Britain's older actresses.

Hmm. How strange of Radio 4 to schedule on the same day two comedies about offspring still living at home. This rather over-written one is about a mother (Alison Steadman) whose son (Alexander Kirk) is 41 and not yet moved away. He says he's going to New York, save up, pass his driving test. These prospects seem remote as Mother serves up the oven chips with fair warning that she's going to get him a girlfriend, so he'll move out. Now there's a modern supposition. These days they'd both move in, as used to be customary in all hard times of yore.