Alison Graham

Sky 1's comedy firmly plants a flag on Modern Family territory with its crowd-pleasing farcical mix of hip oldsters, dippy parents and cool kids.

It most emphatically isn't Modern Family, of course; it's more like a lighter version of BBC1's My Family with its infantile mum and dad: Jenny (Sally Phillips) who loses her job and Nick (Darren Strange), the latest in a long line of hapless sitcom dads, a deluded pin brain with lame ideas about being an "entrepreneur".

As the family finances suffer and their house is repossessed, they have to move in with granny and grandad (Susie Blake and Tom Conti). The comedy catch is that the grandparents really don't want them and treat everyone, adults included, like kids. Just in case there's anything here you don't get, the whole premise is helpfully set out in the animated opening titles.

I recently attended a Graham Norton Show recording, so I can bear witness that it's a brilliantly slick operation and Norton is a master of audience-wrangling, winning us all over immediately and making us feel a big part of the show - though not bigger than the array of guests, who we'll see again in this end-of-series compilation.

Remember Madonna, being her usual steely and scary self, despite Norton's efforts to try to get her to loosen up a bit? And what of the great Sir David Attenborough, all soft and mooning, not over a gorilla, but a comely young woman - actress Cameron Diaz? Just watch his face as he hangs on her every single word.

We also see again Dame Judi Dench, Hugh Grant, Katy Perry and the voluble, unstoppable force that is Will Smith.

On top form, this soars like an eagle above just about every other comedy and panel show on TV. In this episode Downton Abbey's Mr Carson, Jim Carter, reveals himself to be a bit of a comedy star, deadpanning a tale of how he serves the Downton cast lunch in his butler pomp when they are off duty. Meanwhile, young whippersnapper Jack Whitehall has fun with a story about a lady and his duvet "toggage". But it's Armando Iannucci's tale of a baboon and a visit to a safari park that sends everyone into surreal flights of fancy.

Helen Stephens, falsely imprisoned for murder, is forced to share her cell with a German cannibal on a prisoner-exchange. Played by the splendid Anna Crilly (of Lead Balloon), even she can't rise above the jokey German accents and weak gags in this curious misfire from Sharon Horgan.

There are good moments, just not enough. In this third episode they belong to Edward Hogg as Henry, a workmate with an unfortunate centre parting who is secretly obsessed by Helen. He can't quite keep a lid on his feelings during a prison visit, telling his beloved that her shampoo makes her "smell like the inside of a taxi".

What a fragrant and lovely Graham Norton couch this week as pop songstrels Katy Perry and Cheryl Cole take their dainty places. Ubiquitous comedian Ross Noble is also a guest, the thorn between two roses.

Cheryl Cole, after a difficult couple of years, including her marital problems and all of that unpleasantness over her here today/gone tomorrow role as a judge on the US X Factor, is back in the limelight again. She'll be singing her new single, Call My Name.

The hard-working Katy Perry has also had her fair share of personal troubles, what with the collapse of her brief marriage to Russell Brand. But she seems to be on the up, and will be promoting her concert-tour documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D.

Growly Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street director of communications and strategy, diarist, Burnley supporter and ebullient Tweeter, chairs for the first time. So expect lots of needling from Ian Hislop, who'll doubtless have something to say about Campbell's appearances before the Leveson Inquiry (he's the first of tonight's Leveson alumni; Steve Coogan turns up on Graham Norton).

But the big question is will Campbell have the skill to rein in guest panellist, big, loud hirsute Ross Noble, who tends to overwhelm any panel show he's on if he's not kept in order? Returning to the show is Lord Sugar's flint-eyed right-hand man, and Countdown host, Nick Hewer.

Steve Coogan's last big attention-grabbing television appearance saw him sober-suited and angry giving evidence about press intrusion and phone-hacking to the Leveson Inquiry last year.

Tonight he joins Charlize Theron and Jon Hamm on Graham Norton's big red sofa, presumably to discuss his travails at the hands of an unforgiving press and the return of his monstrous, brilliant creation, embittered Radio Norwich DJ Alan Partridge. There will be a Partridge film later this year and a TV series is set for Sky Atlantic.

Now this is going to be quite a night: William Shatner, yes, William Shatner, Captain Kirk himself, will be in the host's chair tonight, which has the potential to be both hilarious and acutely painful because what on earth will Shatner make of it all?

Still, he seems like a game kind of fella who has a good ear for comedy (witness his performances in 3rd Rock from the Sun and, memorably, his award-winning turn as lawyer Denny Crane in Boston Legal). And he's come up with a good quote to mark his appearance: "The English sense of humour is different from the American sense of humour. Luckily, I'm Canadian."

Recent BBC4 repeats of Michael Parkinson's interviews with Peter Cook reminded us that Cook was a rarity: a skilled satirist who was louche, profoundly funny and charismatic.

His diminutive long-time comic partner, "cuddly" Dudley Moore, often fell into the shadow (sometimes literally) of his friend and colleague during their years in 1960s revue Beyond the Fringe and their subsequent TV series, until Moore quite unexpectedly became a huge star in the films 10 and Arthur.

Unforgettable hears from his ex-wife Brogan Lane about his life in Hollywood and how he coped with fame, and from friend Rena Fruchter, who helped Moore through his final, cruel illness until his death in 2002.

Kristen Stewart, star of Twilight, never looks particularly happy, so here's hoping she cheers up a bit when she arrives on Norton's sofa. Stewart, well-known as the inamorata of her co-star Robert Pattinson, is in the studio to promote her new film Snow White and the Huntsman.

They will be serenaded by Engelbert Humperdinck, singing UK Eurovision entry Love Will Set You Free. In the comedy corner is the mighty Chris Rock, talking about his new movie, the animated kids' comedy Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.