Anna Crilly

I had forgotten just how wonderful this series is - albeit wonderful in a deadpan sort of a way. The director Lindsay Anderson said once that the key to success was in the casting, and that is certainly the case here. Tonight, Magda (Anna Crilly), the surly East European help, moves in with the family because 'boiler is leaking gas'. She partitions the fridge like the Berlin Wall and poisons the son with her carthorse sausages, while Mel (Raquel Cassidy) - the wife who usually manages to keep it all together - gets splendidly drunk. I laughed out loud, which woke up my mother-in-law and startled the dog.

David Chater, The Times, 13th November 2008

Jack Dee's back with a second series of his (written with Pete Sinclair) hugely enjoyable BBC2 sitcom Lead Balloon.

Dee's portrayal of cantankerous, middle-aged comedian Rick Spleen has more than a touch of a media-class Tony Hancock to it - a character whose talent for digging himself into holes is second only to a grave-digger's.

One of the main joys of Lead Balloon is its small cast of supporting characters, comprising Rick's supremely patient wife (Raquel Cassidy), staggeringly vague daughter Sam (Antonia Campbell-Hughes), their permanently unheppy Polish home help Magda (brilliantly played by Anna Crilly) and his far-smarter co-writer Marty (Sean Power).

Even as minor a role as over-familiar local cafe owner Michael (Tony Gardner) is a perfectly formed, fully drawn character.

Every one of them was on top form, producing a just about flawless half hour of delightfully miserablist comedy. Lead Balloon is sure to go down well again this winter.

James Walton, The Telegraph, 16th November 2007

When Lead Balloon started, I obsessed about its debt to Curb Your Enthusiasm and whether it was too self-regarding in having a comedian playing a comedian. But I guess what counts is whether it's funny, and Lead Balloon has delivered lovely moments as well as scene-stealing turns from Anna Crilly's Magda, as perpetually gloomy as a Soviet tenement block, and Tony Gardner as a shell-shocked City trader-turned-organic restaurateur. And leading it all is Dee, who turns childish pettiness into something almost endearing.

Ian Johns, The Times, 2nd November 2006