Alison Steadman

Gavin & Stacey star Alison Steadman washes herself of eager-to-please Essex mum Pam to play a matriarch who's finally had enough of her family in Love and Marriage, ITV's latest star-packed drama.

When her husband fails to show support throughout her retirement and the death of her father, frustrated doormat Pauline Paradise (Steadman) breaks it to her adult kids - who include Ashley Jensen and Coronation Street star Graeme Hawley - that she's packing her bags and starting a new life. Also featuring Celia Imrie and Larry Lamb, Love and Marriage is at once funny and poignant, disheartening and upflifting. We'd say it's definitely worth a peek, even before the mini-Gavin & Stacey reunion.

ITV find themselves back on traditional territory with the cuddly comedy-drama Love And Marriage, in which - and steel yourselves here, because this sounds like an outright parody - Alison Steadman stars as a retired lollipop lady and matriarch called Pauline Paradise. The sort of whimsical confection where nary a scene goes by without chortling musical accompaniment, its "hook" is the device of having the various members of the extended Paradise clan speak directly to the audience from their sofas, much like those old Prudential adverts. Other than that it's nothing you haven't seen before: family strife presented as an ultimately positive cavalcade of blunders and hugs.

Alison Steadman: Life seems to stop at 35 in TV

Alison Steadman, who is back on our screens as a lollipop lady, has slammed the lack of TV roles for older people.

The fabulous Lily Savage makes a welcome return to our TV screens tonight when chat show host and comedian Paul O'Grady steps up to pull his Little Cracker. Inviting his drag queen alter ego to make a cameo appearance, O'Grady spins a dramatic anecdote out of a teenage trip to see The Exorcist - a spine-chilling experience that spooks the adolescent Paul (Robin Morrissey) out of his wits, finding cold comfort from his no-nonsense mam (Alison Steadman). The tale's a hoot but this cracker really takes off when Savage lets rip in all her foul-mouthed glory in the behind-the-scenes follow-up.

Sky's series of one-off comedy-drama vignettes, created by talent more often seen in front of the camera shoots back to the early '60s for Alison Steadman's The Autograph. Though only ten minutes long, her offering sees her playing with fire a little as she recalls seeing the Beatles at the Cavern and getting an autograph from Paul and John. Depicting the Beatles on film can be a recipe for howling disaster, with any slight imperfection in costume, accent or playing style (right down to Ringo's distinctive way of flicking his wrist) showing up to the legion of sad Beatles nerdlings out there (this writer included). Steadman's short fails hopelessly on this count (George Harrison's guitar tone sounds more like a Strat than a Gretsch, for one thing), but it's still a rather charming tale that involves the unique sight of Steadman herself playing her own mother.

This cornucopia of delightful mini dramas continues with a double helping of cockle-warmers. First up, actress Alison Steadman plays her own mother in a cool episode from her teenage years in Liverpool. It's 1962 and the young Steadman has to pull the wool over her mum's eyes if she's to see the young Beatles at the legendary Cavern Club. Hot on Steadman's kitten heels comes comedian Dylan Moran as a dad who finds himself way out of his comfort zone as he tries to connect with his teenage son, the victim of a street mugging. Catch the making-of films that follow too - they're great fun.

The Little Cracker series of autobiographical tales continues with Alison Steadman's sweetly written and charmingly realised story of a teenage encounter with The Beatles at Liverpool's Cavern Club. Sixteen-year-old Alison (Lauren McQueen) and her pals are excited about a lunchtime gig by The Beatles even though her mother (Steadman) doesn't want her to go. But drawn by the prospect of seeing the moptops and the promise of free soup and a bread roll, the girls head to the club and afterwards even manage to get John and Paul's autographs while waiting in the post office. Straight afterwards, comic Dylan Moran recalls a story about being mugged after his first job interview and the effect the incident had on his father.

If you're disappointed there's no Dragons' Den tonight, take comfort in Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's version, which is almost as good. Other highlights in an undeniably patchy edition (the ongoing Canal Five sketch is a stinker) include Whitehouse's remarkable transformation into a physically accurate Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm and their take on a Mike Leigh film that has Morwenna Banks doing a superb impersonation of Alison Steadman in Abigail's Party.

Funniest sketch of the night award goes once again to the Minor Royals with Enfield politely asking a homeless man who's sleeping rough whether he's doing his Duke of Edinburgh.

Mark Gatiss among cast of Living with Mother series two

Doctor Who writer joins an all-star cast including Brigit Forsyth, Tom Goodman-Hill and Alison Steadman in the returning Radio 4 comedy.

Gloomsbury (Radio 4, Friday) is the Bloomsbury of Harold Nicholson, Vita Sackville-West, Virginia Woolf and Violet Trefusis as re-imagined by clever Sue Limb and recreated by a brilliant cast (Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman, Nigel Planer, Morwenna Banks, Jonathan Coy). It bustles along, shifting assorted real-life infatuations, elopements and enthusiasms into the higher planes of nonsense. Oddly, however, the thrust of the performances seemed greater than the grip of the narrative.