Amelia Bullmore

Jam: The experimental black comedy by Chris Morris

Life is fragile and baulked about by difficulty. Still, through a series of disturbing and surreal vignettes, Morris provided an experimental critique of our modern ills while making the whole human enterprise the absurdist comedy that it undoubtedly is.

The Larkins review

A mystery fit for a Time Lord - why is The Larkins so unfunny?

In praise of​ Big Train

A tribute to the underrated 90s sketch-comedy gem.

Power Monkeys is successor to last year's riotously funny Ballot Monkeys, and also written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, but this time a little more miss than hit. They absolutely nailed Donald Trump, by focusing not on him but on a moderate aide's frantic attempts to dial him down (Amelia Bullmore just keeps getting drolly better); and nailed, too, the sinistrata of the Kremlin, its all-too-believable obsessions with the skewed minutiae of the UK media, plus a damned fine gag about Noel Edmonds, surely nature's successor to David Icke. Where they failed was in the Brexit battle bus, by having a joke Ukip fringe-loon at the centre of things. I know this is chiefly written on the day, to keep it as topical as possible, but sometimes the set-up is more important, and the Brexiters were drawn, weeks ago, with a surprising lack of subtlety. I would worry more if the writers were not capable of both fluidity and nuance: expect the swivel-eyes Ukip cliche to soon Brexit the brus, and Jack Dee's dark cynicism to lighten our days. Ballot Monkeys got fiercely sharper as the vote approached: expect the same.

Jack Dee is all over the EU referendum, it seems. Tonight, he stars as volatile former journalist Oliver, now working at the Conservative HQ's Unity Unit, in a spin-off from the comedy Ballot Monkeys, scripted by Outnumbered creators Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. Written in the hours before transmission to keep the comedy bang up to date, it satirically follows both sides of the debate, and also has an international dimension, with Donald Trump's plane and Vladimir Putin's office among the settings. Claire Skinner and Amelia Bullmore co-star.

Power Monkeys preview

Channe‎l 4's new six-part topical comedy about the EU Referendum is the latest in 'ripped from the headlines' comedy f​rom the creators of Outnumbered and Drop The Dead Donkey, with each episode shot and edited on the day of transmission.

It's not real but it's very funny. This spoof phone-in is hosted by (fictional) Gary Bellamy, devised and produced by Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse who also appear, amid a glittering talent line-up which includes Amelia Bullmore, Felix Dexter and Adil Ray in the gloriously comic array of pretend callers. It's hard to go back to the real world of phone-ins after this, so perfectly does it capture their manic levels of non-communication.

Made by Steve Coogan's Baby Cow stable, Common Ground is a collection of ten 15-minute comedy shorts, each set in a neighbourhood in south London. Having featured Simon Day, Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes and Charles Dance in previous weeks, the series concludes with Barry - based around Alex Lowe's octogenarian little Englander character which he honed by calling in to Iain Lee's LBC programme in the mid-2000s. With his wife having run off with a retired financial advisor, Barry embarks on a bucket list with his grandson.

It may not be earth-shatteringly original, but it's worth it just to hear Barry's view on pink candy floss: 'It's like eating Barbara Cartland's minge.' A (fictional) former member of So Solid Crew takes over a church choir in the far-funnier Nell, Ted and Marlon. It quickly descends into a creepy love triangle (with One Foot In the Grave actress Annette Crosbie occasionally chiming in with some unexpected filth); the humour is sharp, surreal and pleasantly wicked in places.