Amelia Bullmore

Cast in the mould of Sky1's excellent Little Crackers, this series offers ten diverting snapshots of south London life. In the opening double bill, Charles Dance stars as an old rocker now living with his uptight daughter (Amelia Bullmore) and running up steep electricity bills growing his 'herbs' indoors. Following on Dance's heels is Jessica Hynes as a clueless politician, complete with Boris Johnson hairdo, whose luck never seems to run out.

A new series of comedy shorts - all set in the same location - opens with the entertaining Floyd, which stars Charles Dance as a retired rock band manager now living in suburbia with his uptight daughter (Amelia Bullmore) and son-in-law (Hugo Speer). Written by Mark Warren and Fraser Steele (Never Mind the Buzzcocks), it captures the rebelliousness of the ageing rocker and Dance is wonderfully grizzled in the role. Less successful is Jessica Hynes's Patricia, in which she stars as an issue-averse local councillor. After causing an accident on her way to work, Patricia is greeted by a demonstration against her plans to build luxury flats in place of a nursery school.

What must the actual Olympics deliverance team think of this brilliant, searing satire, in which each scene is a beautifully crafted showcase of staggering incompetence?

As it returns for three new episodes, Kay (Amelia Bullmore) goes even more off-piste to find future uses for the stadium, while saintly Ian (Hugh Bonneville, super as the straight man) has a meeting with the police 'catastrophisation' unit about starting guns that you just know is going to end in, well, catastrophe.

Bill Nighy stars as Oliver, jobless, nervy, utterly deracinated, and in love with Jo (Amelia Bullmore). He is scared of telling her, so he climbs a tree in a garden that he knows she will visit. Why? Because he thinks that if he's up a tree he won't be able to back out of confessing his passion. AL Kennedy's summery romance is a bit of a departure for this writer, but wry comedy is becoming her forte (witness her recent reflections on adventures in America on Radio 4). Does the brilliant casting mean this could presage a series?

Amelia Bullmore interview

The Twenty Twelve and Scott & Bailey star reveals why she is so rarely recognised in the street.

Big Train: Cult comedy & early platform for top talent

Simon Pegg, Catherine Tate and Amelia Bullmore were among those in the surreal sketch show.

This episode of the lovingly detailed comedy of errors could almost have been written by cutting and pasting actual newspaper articles.

Because the latest hurdle for Ian Fletcher's Olympic Development Committee concerns the (still unresolved) post-Games future for the Olympic Stadium and the rival bids from West Ham and Spurs.

A football pitch with a running track around its perimeter? Who wouldn't want a white elephant like that?

What the cast bring to this series are the glimpses of barely concealed panic just behind their eyes and Sally Hope (Amelia Bullmore) is absolutely marvellous this week - toiling through the night to produce her report on the Spurs bid and their manager Harry Houdini.

The other major development this week is that super-PA Sally has abandoned ship, after Ian (Hugh Bonneville) failed to turn up at her house last week, and has been replaced by a sweet boy called Daniel.

Meanwhile, Ian and Siobhan (who is frankly too thick to panic) are off to Clarence House to thrash out ways the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics can pull together.

And that means a visit to the "Ideas Space" at Siobhan's PR company. Like Siobhan, it's a room which manages to be vacuous, loud and pretentious all at the same time.

We get a glimpse into the workings of unspeakable PR agency Perfect Curve when dead-eyed Siobhan (Jessica Hynes) gathers her team to brainstorm ideas. They come up with a terrific wheeze - combining the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with the Olympics. Result? The Jubilympics.

Back at the Olympic Deliverance Committee offices, Ian has an attentive male PA, and febrile head of sustainability Kay Hope (Amelia Bullmore) is quietly in meltdown. There's a wonderful scene between Kay and Ian (Hugh Bonneville) after Kay has a moment of madness with a vitally important document.

Delivering the Olympics is a job so insanely complicated, it should be beyond the remit of any mere mortal.

And the British Olympic Deliverance Committee is back to prove once again just how very fallible and human they can be.

Winner of the Best TV Sitcom in the British Comedy Awards, John Morton's mockumentary has finally been released from the scheduling ghetto of BBC4 and promoted to BBC2 for two new series before the real thing kicks off in July.

This week Algeria is threatening to boycott the Games because the all-purpose prayer centre in the Olympic Village doesn't have any of its walls facing Mecca.

For head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) it's just one more PR nightmare to add to the towering pile of other PR nightmares in his in-tray that he really doesn't need.

Having just separated from his wife, he's also about to move into a new flat - which is a chance for his quietly superhuman PA Sally (Olivia Colman) to prove just how invaluable she can be.

Sally is secretly in love with Ian, of course. Just check out the look of pure jealously that flickers across her face for the briefest instant as an attractive new girl joins the team as Head Of Legacy.

Head of Sustainability Sally Hope (Amelia Bullmore) is not pleased to learn she'll be sharing an office either.

But she's not bothered about the Algerians.

Her only care is that 2012 will go down as the games that changed the way people dry their hands.

Amelia Bullmore interview

She writes, she performs, she baits the red tops ... Gerard Gilbert meets an actor provocateur.