Alison Graham

Radio Times review

Peter Capaldi plays it straight as a film buff and devotee of the now defunct Cricklewood Studios. Pure fiction, of course, but pinning spoofs of cheap British movies and even cheaper British movie stars onto a made-up studio lets Capaldi and co-writer Tony Roche have some arch fun.

Capaldi presents this "documentary" celebrating the output of his beloved Cricklewood Studios (now a DIY superstore). He recalls Florrie Fontaine (Lindsay Marshal), a terrifyingly cheerful Gracie Fields-type singer whose career died when she became friendly with Nazi high command: "I speak as I find, and they were grand company."

Watch out for Hustle's Kelly Adams as a Barbara Windsor-ish bimbette, star of the Thumbs Up series. But the show is stolen by Terry Gilliam, playing himself, a profligate director who brought the studio to its knees.

No one is quite sure - or else they are and are playing their cards close to their chests - but this could be the last series of TV Burp. At least, with Harry Hill at the helm.

After 11 years of watching terrible television, Hill has reportedly had enough and is bowing out. But another presenter would be unthinkable. Burp IS Harry Hill. Though he has a team of writers, Hill's surreal stamp is all over the Bafta-winning show.

So make the most of what could be the end. Admittedly Burp has started to lose steam, but it will still be hard to say goodbye to the series that gave us the Zelig-like Knitted Character and the pulverising of Freaky Eaters: all together now, "Chippy chips!"

There's a particularly challenging guest tonight - the voluptuous and very shrewd Miss Piggy who is joined by her adored Kermit to promote their new film The Muppets. Miss Piggy is well known for being wanton, so Ross had better watch out or she'll be all over him like a big pink fluffy duvet.

Hugh Bonneville, star of that unstoppable costume drama juggernaut Downton Abbey, who was recently seen smiling broadly as the series was showered with Golden Globes in Hollywood, turns up to talk about his life and career. Stand-up comedian and actor Jack Whitehall completes the bill, while Arctic Monkeys provide the music.

Kenneth Branagh turns up to talk about his latest role as Laurence Olivier in the film My Week with Marilyn - an intriguing prospect, considering how, early in his career, Branagh was often referred to as a "young Olivier". Zach Braff (from the now defunct, underestimated US comedy series Scrubs) has a play, All New People, opening in London's West End next month. And Frank Skinner, now master of ceremonies in the revamped Room 101, is on the comedy end of the Norton sofa.

The formidable, funny Emma Thompson joins Ross for a chat tonight, presumably to discuss her work-in-progress Effie. Thompson, who won an Academy Award for her Sense and Sensibility screenplay, has taken up her pen again to bring to life the disastrous marriage of Victorian art critic/thinker John Ruskin and his young bride Effie Gray.

Actress and former child star Brooke Shields also makes herself comfortable on the Ross sofa, along with Mr Saturday Night himself, Paddy McGuinness. Music is provided by Florence and the Machine and Petr Spatina.

Madonna isn't the most chatty of celebrities and doesn't grant her favours lightly, so Norton has secured quite a coup tonight. Of course, the infamous pop chameleon isn't doing him a favour - she's in the studio to talk about her new film about Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, W.E. - which should be interesting as it was given a right pasting by some critics after its unveiling at the Venice Film Festival last September.

As Shameless returns for its ninth series, scrofulous Frank Gallagher is having an eye test. To his horror, he needs glasses: "I'm not of the four-eyed persuasion!"

Frank's woes are compounded by an early morning anti-benefit-fraud swoop on the Chatsworth estate, which could lead to its eventual demise. This will gladden the hearts of anyone who thinks Shameless and its grubby, thieving, foul-mouthed denizens celebrate Everything That Is Wrong With Britain Today.

David Jason plays a bumbling buffoon called Guy Hubble, who becomes an accidental hero when, as Head of Security at Buckingham Palace, he rescues the Queen from her runaway carriage.

Hubble is appointed to guard his sovereign at all times. But everyone knows he's an idiot, including the high-up who appointed him (the magnificent Geoffrey Whitehead).

This new series is the most undemanding of farces, involving Jason being caught on a balcony in his underwear, hiding under tables and fighting with a suit of armour.

There was so much more to Les Dawson than an endless stream of mother-in-law jokes; he was erudite, well read, a brilliant writer and a master of the comically surreal. John Cleese, who worked with Dawson on his TV show Sez Les in the 1970s, says of his old friend: "He was an autodidact, a very smart guy who was fascinated by words."

Dawson was a product of those unforgiving crucibles of a certain kind of comedy, northern working me's clubs. He developed what became the most beloved part of his act - playing the piano brilliantly badly - as a means of shutting up vituperative audiences. Colleagues, admirers and Dawson's widow, Tracy, contribute.

It's Christmas at St Saviour's and someone has stolen the Three Wise Men's camels from the Nativity display. Vicar Adam Smallbone refuses to be downhearted -maybe the missing beasts can be replaced by cows? "A Wise Man crossing the desert on a cow?" blusters outraged parishioner Adoha.

That's Adam, a man for whom there are never problems, there are only solutions. But even his legendary compassion and good nature are stretched by a truly testing Christmas. He loses a friend, he is head-butted by another, supposed, mate and his father-in-law (a magnificently austere Geoffrey Palmer) arrives unexpectedly. Worse, Midnight Mass is disrupted by drunks and Adam (Tom Hollander) melts down in a spectacular, funny/sad, Adam-type way.

Christmas specials of television comedies are so rarely special, or even Christmassy, but Rev is a fount of goodness and kindness all year round and especially at Christmas. You'll have a few tears and a heart as warmed as a plum pudding by the end.