Alison Graham

Radio Times review

Admitting that you love repeats of old comedy shows probably isn't very sound. After all, where is the new stuff and why does BBC Two keep congratulating itself for being so marvellous simply because it's got old? We've all been there and birthday parties don't usually last this long.

But... pah! When the shows are as good as this, who cares? Neither does it matter that we've probably all seen them a squillion times before, thanks to the miracle of box sets. So cuddle up in a warm bath of nostalgia as we enjoy once more Yes, Prime Minister from 1987, where Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) hears of a big financial scandal.

Radio Times review

There's something acutely charmless about The Guess List. Add the merest touch of desperation and look what you've got - a Saturday-night game show. Host Rob Brydon works tremendously hard to keep the thing pelting along as he gently, and often not so gently, insults a panel of celebrity guests who this week include Nick Hewer, Helen Skelton and Eamonn Holmes.

Inevitably there's plenty of ribaldry when the guests are asked to pinpoint an embarrassing first date.

Radio Times review

As part of its 50th birthday celebrations, BBC2 has tiptoed downstairs to the vaults, cleared the dust from the shelves and picked some little-seen and little-remembered comedy treasures from the past half-century.

It has an enviably rich archive to trawl, one full of familiar faces. There are surprises, too, including the unbroadcast pilot of QI. Early BBC2 stalwarts aren't forgotten: there are sketches from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and Spike Milligan, whose thoroughly surreal and bizarre Q series ran for well over ten years.

We also get to see an early Borat work-in-progress from Sacha Baron Cohen, as an Albanian called Christo.

Radio Times review

Hugh Dennis is Bill, a hangdog weatherman who is sacked from the BBC and replaced by a stunning young woman. Infuriated, bitter Bill sets out to find another job, this time with C4. It's not much of a premise for a comedy, but then Over to Bill isn't much of a comedy.

It's supposed to be a comedy (written by Red Dwarf's Doug Naylor) because it's part of a brief revival of the much-loved Comedy Playhouse strand, which produced abiding hits Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part and The Liver Birds.

But Over to Bill won't trouble the comedy stratosphere like those classics. There are jokes about the accidental drinking of breast-milk, emergency present-buying from a garage and a particularly tasteless routine about bone marrow transplants. Neil Morrissey and Call the Midwife's Helen George co-star as Bill's shallow friends.

Radio Times review

If you thought tormented vicar Adam Smallbone couldn't fall any lower than he did in the last upsetting episode, think again. Adam (Tom Hollander) is debased to the point of hopelessness. He's listless and depressed, and pretends that he doesn't mind being suspended. Who wants to be a vicar anyway, he asks his forbearing wife, Alex, unconvincingly.

Adam feels cut off and alone. Even decrepit Colin has turned on him in the most vituperative way, and his verger, Nigel, the cause of all the trouble, is angry and unrepentant.

As Adam frantically gardens at night, it is clear, in the final episode of the series, that nothing can ever be the same again. It's too, too sad. Much too sad.

How Rev went from sitcom heaven to bleak hell

Rev devotees don't want this; we watch Rev because of its kindness and its imperfect view of an imperfect world. We don't watch to feel despair and helplessness.

Radio Times review

The relentless, competitive maleness of The Trip to Italy is leavened by the arrival of Coogan's chirpy PA Emma and Spanish photographer Yolanda, who are in Rome to do a photoshoot with the boys.

The quartet have romantic history, as anyone who saw the first series will know, and there are some tender flirtations. But the group are easy with one another as they explore the lives of doomed poets Keats and Shelley.

Of course, impressions are never far away and when someone mentions Sicily, Brydon launches into his Marlon Brando/Godfather in a riff that turns into an extraordinary little scene about Jimmy Savile.

Of all the episodes so far, this feels closest to self-indulgence, but it's hard to sniff at anything that features Steve Coogan doing Robert de Niro as a foul-mouthed Frankenstein's monster.

Radio Times review

David Threlfall delivers a tour de force as Tommy Cooper, undergoing a transformation that's much deeper than just the donning of a fez.

Cooper's studied incompetence with magic tricks made him a star, but Simon Nye's script centres on Cooper's relationships with two women, his volatile and long-suffering wife Dove (Amanda Redman) and his mistress Mary Kay (Helen McCrory).

Cooper is hard to like - he drinks too much, he's tight with money and he's physically abusive - and by the end of two hours your patience may have run dry.

But Threlfall and Nye work hard to show why Cooper inspired abiding loyalty in both women, and in his friends and fellow comedians, right until that final show when he collapses on stage in front of a TV audience, an extraordinary 15 minutes from Threlfall who does the act note for note.

Radio Times review

Oh my! Watching Rev. week after week is increasingly traumatic, as Adam Smallbone, buffeted by the vicissitudes of life and his own weaknesses (namely, comely head teacher Ellie) begins to unravel.

He's sent to see the Bishop of London (Ralph Fiennes) who subjects him to a draconian punishment after the kiss-in-the-vestry incident. Soon Adam's world is shredded as he loses all grip on his beloved and doomed St Saviour's Church. He's even let down by the decrepit Colin (the marvellous Steve Evets) whose faithlessness puts Adam at the centre of a parish-wide scandal.

But in the midst of a meltdown, he meets a kindly stranger on a green hill far away...

Radio Times review

Television loves birthdays and anniversaries, so how much more exciting can it get than actually having an excuse to celebrate one of its own milestones with a special season of programmes? BBC Two is 50 years old this year (surely not, doesn't she look young?) and the festivities will be sprinkled across the schedules throughout the year.

Here Dara O'Briain and Pointless's Richard Osman hosts a 50th birthday quiz where celebrities are asked questions about BBC Two stars and programmes across the years. Guests include Hugh Dennis, Hairy Biker Dave Myers and Professor Brian Cox.