Alison Steadman

The second of the new Comedy Playhouse season is written by The Royle Family's Craig Cash and Phil Mealey. Five seemingly disparate groups of people discuss their lives to camera, including Brenda and Roger, who run the "Brenroger" B&B, elderly couple Milton and Pearl, fixated with their smoke alarm, and brothers Martin and Tom. It's Alan Bennett with more swearing and a decent cast (Timothy West, Alison Steadman), but ultimately not quite as touching, clever or as funny as it thinks it is.

Radio Times review

If you enjoyed BBC Four's series about retired folk in Dorset, Close to the Edge, here's the sitcom equivalent. The idea is that three 60-something couples (including Alison Steadman as uptight Joyce) are striding into retirement, keeping creaking marriages afloat and leaning on old friendships - the working title was "Grey Mates".

We rejoin them at the Calais Eurotunnel terminal, returning from a trip to a Christmas market. There are surly asides about Germans, gingerbread and saucy Santa toys, while Alan (Philip Jackson) wrestles with a voice-recognition phone line: "Didn't understand me, wouldn't let me finish," he sighs. "It's the computerised ticket line version of Joyce."

Radio Times review

Sue Limb's literary parody (sorry, "Rhapsody about Bohemians") is back for a third series. Hitler may be causing trouble in Europe, but for the self-obsessed Bloomsbury artistes life continues uninterrupted. Vita Sackcloth-Vest (Miriam Margolyes) is still hiding her steamy romance with Venus Traduces. Naturally, Venus's unexpected arrival at Sizzlinghurst leads to a sub-Wodehouse imbroglio of fake names and Marxist spies.

There's something charmingly disrespectful about Gloomsbury, particularly Alison Steadman's Ginny Fox character (a merciless send-up of Virginia Woolf). If you're misty-eyed about all things Bloomsbury, and calling DH Lawrence "Dave Lollipop" makes you smile, Gloomsbury is sure to raise a chuckle.

Radio Times review

For many, there's only a very fine line between comedy and horror; the two combined are an irresistible cocktail. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are masters in this field. For the final episode of this excellent anthology, they ensure we're snorting one minute and shuddering the next.

I shan't say too much about Séance Time, except that it happens inside a spooky house, where the gullible Tina (Sophie McShera, Downton Abbey's Daisy) is greeted by Shearsmith's character Hives (surely a nod to Laurel and Hardy). Before long, Tina is introduced to a black-veiled, hoarse and hilariously theatrical medium (Alison Steadman). The lights are dimmed and that's when the fun starts...

Emotionally affecting and brilliantly crafted, The 12 Days of Christine, starring Sheridan Smith, has been the highlight of the series, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's next-generation take on Tales Of The Unexpected.

Their curious muse hasn't abandoned them for this final episode, however. The cleverly executed Séance Time gives two of the writers' most cherished obsessions an airing: horror films and - a thrill for fans of The League of Gentlemen's community theatre troupe Legz Akimbo - the pretensions of actors.
The icing on what turns out to be a deliciously poisonous cake is an appearance by Alison Steadman. Do have nightmares.

A slightly sinister man (Reece Shearsmith) acts as the host of a séance. He ushers an innocent young girl into a stuffy room filled with Victoriana and then introduces her to Madame Talbot the medium (Alison Steadman).

Madame Talbot is shrouded from head to toe in black. Her eyes are white with cataracts. She carries one of those spooky dolls with an ivory face that she treats as if it were a real child. Spiritualist vapour pours out of her mouth like mist from an electronic cigarette, and while the lights flicker her voice alternates between a sweet little-odd-lady squeak and a diabolical, growl. And that is as much as I can say for fear of being savaged by a blue dwarf.

Alison Steadman and Sophie McShera (scullery maid Daisy in Downton Abbey) star in the final episode of this series. The action occurs in a vast gothic building where a séance is about to take place.

Tina (McShera) turns up for her session and admits she hasn't lost anyone, but she is 'curious'. Madam Talbot, brilliantly played by Steadman, replies: 'The curious are often drawn here for a glimpse of summerland'. What ensues is chilling and hilarious in equal measure and the final twist is superb. Let's hope Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith bring us a third series.

Those masters of the dark arts, the former League Of Gentlemen co-stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, return with a second instalment of their deliciously macabre shorts, the first series of which won best comedy performance at the Royal Television Society awards last week.
Like a Tales Of The Unexpected for the 21st century, each perfectly formed 30 minutes offers a masterclass in storytelling: witty, imaginative, inventive and suspenseful - with a clever twist at the end for good measure.
The six tales are linked by the number nine and in the opening episode, La Couchette, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mark Benton, Jessica Gunning and Jack Whitehall join Pemberton and Shearsmith on board the sleeper train from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. They're a motley collection trying to get a quiet night's sleep as the train makes its way across France, but as the sleeping compartment fills up, the chances of that begin to look highly unlikely...
The setting for future episodes include a séance in the grand Victorian villa, a modern-day family get-together, a 17th-century village witch trial and a volunteer call centre, with Alison Steadman, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Paul Kaye and Tom Riley among the cast. Special mention must go to Sheridan Smith, however, for her performance in next week's offering, The 12 Days Of Christine, a powerful, moving story of one woman's rocky journey through life. It is an absolute gem, one of the best things I have seen on television this year.

The Boomers are off to a 60s weekender in the final episode. Disaster inevitably strikes: first when a double booking forces them to share rooms, and then when Carol (Paula Wilcox) bumps into an old flame at the bar. Joyce (Alison Steadman) steals the show with plenty of one-liners, including one about a man who nailed his penis to a block of "two-be-four", but generally the ensemble cast's attempts to prove they're not really that old raise a load of wry smiles.