Anton Du Beke

11 reactions to the Widdecombe / Du Beke sitcom plan

The news of the dodged bullet caused tweeters to write some comedy of their own, and we can guarantee that the former Brexit MEP, Ms Widdecombe, wouldn't like any of it.

New host-less gameshow in which celebs dine together and try to avoid picking up the bill by winning games. Carol Vorderman, Rylan Clark-Neal, Anton Du Beke, Ed Gamble and Ellie Taylor are this week's party of five, but the laughs are thin and there is a banal, enforced-fun feel to the whole thing.

Katy Brand does ballroom with Anton Du Beke

As Katy Brand prepares for Christmas Day's Strictly showbiz spectacular, she talks sequins and smiles, a massive hug from her partner Anton Du Beke and the gruelling training regime required for classic ballroom dancing.

Victoria Wood, God bless her, had a crack at Lark Rise to Candleford in her Christmas Eve special, Victoria Wood's Midlife Christmas, packaged and presented as a kindly gift to middle-aged couch potatoes. The target was a whale in a barrel, frankly, but there were still some fine jokes, including the scene in which Cranchesterford's teenagers exchanged embroidery text messages, stitching like fury and then handing the frame over to a nearby urchin to deliver. There were also some terrible jokes, though knowingly and lovingly handcrafted to be terrible, so that it didn't matter. Given its content, the line "I could have been a corn tender", uttered by the family paterfamilias when he wistfully recalled his unfulfilled ambition to go into the seed trade, was surely an unbeatable candidate for corniest gag of the Christmas break. Julie Walters was on good form too as Bo Beaumont, fruitlessly struggling to build public presence after years of playing Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques. She walked out of Strictly Come Dancing because she couldn't master the three-step warm-up Anton du Beke tried to teach her, was passed over for a new Delia series because her signature dish - crackermole, a sardine on a Tuc cracker - didn't appeal, and pulled out of Who Do You Think You Are? when it becomes clear that she was going to have to reveal her true name and date of birth.

Even devotees of BBC1's cute historical drama Lark Rise to Candleford would admit that it's deliciously spoofworthy, what with its myriad of quaint Victorian niceties and arch dialogue. So it will surprise no one that the masterly Victoria Wood presents Lark Pies to Cranchesterford as part of her much-anticipated Christmas special, telling the touching story of young Araminty, who leaves her rural hamlet for a job in the Post and Potato Office.

Midlife Christmas promises to be a real treat for anyone who thinks Wood has been away from television for too long. Yes, she did Housewife 49 (very successfully), but that was a drama and Wood is queen of the sharp, pitch-perfect sketch show.

Here she looks stern as Sir Alan Sugar's sidekick Margaret Mountford in an Apprentice send-up, and we revisit Bo Beaumont (Julie Walters), the pretentious actress who plays Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques. Guests include Delia Smith, Torvill and Dean, Anton du Beke and Reece Shearsmith.

Now that our appetite has been whetted by Monday's retrospective, Victoria Wood - Seen on TV, here's the queen of comedy's brand new special in which she tries to help all those so shattered by the sheer slog of festive preparations. "Christmas is a stressful time," says Wood. "By compressing an evening's viewing into 60 minutes, we hope families will have more time for other festive traditions such as arguing with relatives and defrosting turkeys under the hot tap." Sketches, spoofs and silliness abound. Long-time collaborator Julie Walters is on hand to play the wonderful Bo Beaumont, the once-popular Acorn Antiques actress who believes she's still a star despite her reduced circumstances and innumerable failed attempts to get on every reality show from Strictly to Dancing on Ice. This scenario allows room for appearances from Anton du Beke, Torvill and Dean and Delia Smith. Then there's "Lark Pies to Cranchesterford", an affectionate spoof of just about every costume drama ever made, and "The 2009 Mid-Life Olympics" (events include 4 x 400 hedge trimming). All of which amounts to as entertaining yet reassuringly traditional an hour of fun as only Wood can serve up.

With Ant and Dec attempting to become ITV1's answer to Morecambe and Wise on Boxing Day, this is the nearest that the BBC comes to that inclusive festive family show of the bygone Eric and Ernie era. Giving a flavour of the gentle spoofs being cooked up by the "queen of comedy" (the BBC press notes) is a pastiche of costume dramas called "Lark Pies to Cranchesterford". Guest stars include Julie Walters (natch), Delia Smith and Anton du Beke.