Alison Graham

Radio Times review

Uber-loafer and all-round northern waster Lee (Lee Mack) feels a direct attack on his manhood when his flatmate Lucy is mugged by a group of young thugs. Lee watches helplessly as they flee with her handbag, and decides he must prove himself as a real man.

As a new series starts, Not Going Out doesn't deviate from its standard, winning formula. And why should it? What it does, it does brilliantly. Gags are carefully set up, you can see them coming, but when they hit, you laugh. Simple. Of course all of this is made special by Lee Mack, probably the best gag-man on television, and a proper comedian who is funny to his bone marrow.

But let's also give a cheer to his wonderfully dry foil, Sally Bretton as Lucy, who heroically feeds Lee with his jokes, while also slapping down his doomed attempts at self-improvement.

Radio Times review

In honour of guest Victoria Coren Mitchell, QI goes off-grid and includes an Only Connect round. The most shocking thing to emerge from this dramatic deviation from the norm is that Alan Davies has never managed to sit through an entire episode of the BBC Two brainiac quiz.

It will surprise no one to learn that Jack Whitehall takes over the proceedings completely for his usual Whitehall farce, though you can't dislike him for it. He's funny, particularly when discussing his dad's disapproval of his son's bromance with host Stephen Fry.

Elsewhere, we learn the connection between PG Wodehouse and Sherlock Holmes - and did you know that a quarter of the people who claim to have read 1984 are lying?

Radio Times review

Considering he's possibly the world's most charming man, Stephen Fry is never too far away from controversy. The publication of the third volume of his memoirs, More Fool Me, was accompanied by a racket as some readers and commentators demanded he be retrospectively prosecuted for his acknowledged cocaine use in the 1980s.

But Fry was determined to tell what he's described as the "ugly truth" about his drug-taking past that even saw him snorting cocaine during a reception at Buckingham Palace. "I was an imbecile, an idiot, I got caught up in a ridiculous dependency," he told Huw Edwards recently.

Another man who's had his own monumental battles with addiction, Robert Downey Jr, joins Fry and Oscar-winning Robert Duvall on the Norton sofa.

Radio Times review

An evening on the Graham Norton sofa in the first of a new series might be just what Doctor Who Peter Capaldi needs, what with all the hoo-ha of recent months, and that huge world tour. Everyone's entitled to a little rest, surely?

Now we'll find out what Capaldi thinks of the reaction to his creation. And can Norton succeed where others have failed and prod him for clues as to the future of companion Clara? Doubtless listening closely will be Denzel Washington, star of a new film based on the fondly remembered 1980s series The Equalizer, and Gemma Arterton, star of the Made in Dagenham West End musical. The musical guest is George Ezra.

Radio Times review

The QI Elves, the folk who come up with those fiendish questions for Stephen Fry, emerge from their cave to field a team against the Bibliophiles tonight on Only Connect.

"Do you know everything about everything?" wonders host Victoria Coren Mitchell of the Elves. The answer is an emphatic no. She also brings a blush to the cheek of a Bibliophile by remarking upon his supposed resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatc, not that I could see it.

There are some killer rounds, though the music question might leave you feeling a bit smug as it's easy. But as always the connecting walls will probably wipe the smile from your face, when you think you've worked it out, but you haven't.

Radio Times review

It's Joyce's retirement party, but she's not happy, largely because she doesn't want to retire and, besides, she wanted a do at a nice country house hotel where someone else would do the work. All she's getting from her lumpen husband Alan (the splendid Philip Jackson) is cava (no champagne), a patio heater and heavy-duty plastic sheeting.

As the curmudgeons gather for the festivities they are joined by a ghastly new neighbour and her spoiled, home-educated, precious kids. The humour is broad as it is obvious - for instance, gags about cocktail sausages and Norwich, which is supposed to be intrinsically funny- but Boomers and its stalwart cast of top-of-their-game actors sail through it all without even touching the sides.

Radio Times review

Mr Church and Mr Gunn are locked in their ridiculous competition to win the affections of needy, passive-aggressive school siren Miss Postern. It's her birthday but no one cares, apart from the frenzied Church.

As the second series of David Walliams's school-set sitcom hits its stride, there are more daft gags, but Big School manages not to be sent for detention because of the great cast - Philip Glenister, Catherine Tate, Walliams himself - who throw everything into it.

Some of the jokes go on too long, including a laboured bit of business involving a hunky, blind new geography teacher, and the whole thing is often breathtakingly coarse (a running joke about gay sex, for instance). But Frances de la Tour as the lubricious head steals every scene and it's always good to see Steve Speirs doing his mournful Welsh thing, here as the useless caretaker.

Radio Times review

The Boomers muster for an anniversary dinner at a pretentious restaurant, but there's an immediate cloud over proceedings when long-suffering Carol (Paula Wilcox) announces she's bored with Trevor (James Smith), her husband of 40 years.

What follows is half an hour of creaking comedy that's occasionally crude and often quite unpleasant, particularly when Maureen's ageing, wheelchair-using mum (the mighty June Whitfield, rising majestically above the quality of the material) joins the party. Cue limp gags about the bodily functions of the elderly.

Most of the jokes fall to the floor, though there is a ribald, funny quip about a well-known pizza chain.

Radio Times review

This sitcom from Richard Pinto (Citizen Khan) will be clasped to the bosom of anyone who loves New Tricks, as Boomers centres on a group of old-timers, friends from years back, who find themselves out of kilter with the modern world.

The humour is broad and painted with the widest brush strokes and there are echoes of Victor Meldrew's curmudgeonly head-butting against the idiocies of political correctness and life in general. The cast includes some solid comedy names, including Russ Abbot as the dourest member of the group and Nigel Planer as the wide boy with the newly acquired young Eastern European wife (feel free to let out a weary groan).

The women (Alison Steadman, Paula Wilcox, Stephanie Beacham) always win out in any given situation as their hopeless blokes go to the pub. In the opening episode, everyone gathers at a funeral.

Radio Times review

It's a truth universally acknowledged that broadcasters don't put good new stuff on Friday nights at the height of summer. Which doubtless explains why Walter has washed up here where it will probably die quietly, alone and unnoticed.

It's a woefully under-written comedy/drama about a decent cop, the Walter of the title played by Adrian Dunbar, that's neither funny nor dramatic. So why are we reviewing it, you might ask, dear reader? Well, because it's new and the cast give their hearts and souls to material that doesn't deserve it.

Dunbar in particular (so brilliant as Line of Duty's closed, troubled anti-corruption cop Ted Hastings) is winning as the hapless Walter, a widower with money troubles and a really annoying teenage daughter. And he has a dippy but endearing sidekick (Alexandra Roach, from Utopia). Walter is obviously angling for a series, but I wouldn't bother.