Benedict Cumberbatch

A welcome return for the comedy series where the writing and acting are so tight they're in danger of cutting off your blood supply. The least attentive and most dangerous budget airline in the world - tag line: no job is too small but many, many are too difficult - is flying a party of adventurous tourists to the North Pole. Never has a tiredness for life been so malevolent as in the heart and mind of First Officer Richardson, played with sanguine vitriol by Roger Allam. Not known for his love and admiration of Captain Crieff (portrayed with suitably browbeaten desperation by Benedict Cumberbatch), this flight sees Richardson annihilate any morsel of dignity that the Captain had stored away. And, my goodness, is it funny to witness.

John Finnemore: 'Ours Blanc'. Or 'Ours Polaire'

'Qikiqtarjuaq', the first episode in the new series of Cabin Pressure, wasn't written as the first episode, but unfortunately Benedict Cumberbatch lost his voice for the recording of the one that was meant to be first.

Here's a diamond in radio's crown, John Finnemore's comedy about a small airline. He plays Arthur, daft son of Carolyn the doughty owner (Stephanie Cole, funny and sharp here in a role that suits her perfectly, unlike the ghastly one she struggles with in Coronation Street). Roger Allam and Benedict Cumberbatch play (superbly) the first officer and pilot who fly the plane. Today they're off to a little place called Qikigtarjuag, with a party of tourists who want to look at polar bears. Group leader Nancy rubs Carolyn up the wrong way. She'll be sorry!

Have I Got News For You has lost its edge

The venerable satirical panel show returned with a new series on Thursday night. Our host was Benedict Cumberbatch, who may be a fine actor, but whose hosting skills didn't quite live up to the hilarity of his name.

The satirical news-based panel game has been running since 1990 and is now in its 40th series. The first guest host to face the crossfire from Paul Merton and Ian Hislop is the Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch; later in the series, Jeremy Clarkson and Martin Clunes will take the chair. The first guests to join them tonight are writer and presenter Victoria Coren and comedian Jon Richardson. We can also expect to see James Blunt, Nick Robinson and Ross Noble later in the series.

Sherlock Holmes himself, Benedict Cumberbatch, is the first guest host at the start of the 40th series of the much-loved comedy current affairs panel show. Here's hoping he has the right mix of affability and keen-wittedness that a good host needs, otherwise he'll be wrapped up like a Maypole by team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton. The show is recorded the night before transmission, so there is little that we can say, apart from doling out a few nuggets for fact-fans. Such as, did you know this is the 138th show hosted by a guest presenter in the eight years since Angus Deayton left in October 2002? No, thought not.

Only on radio, where the listener brings the scenery, can a comedy about a small airline take off so successfully. (I'm a devoted fan of that ultra-camp TV show The High Life, but it only had one series.) This has the setting and characters from which classic sitcoms are built: a struggling business, a canny but inexperienced proprietor (Stephanie Cole), her wily chief pilot (Roger Allam), his ambitious young rival (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the good-hearted but daft son of the boss (John Finnemore, who's also the writer). It's really funny.

Welcome return for John Finnemore's situation comedy about a struggling small charter airline. It's blessed with a classy cast, Roger Allam, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephanie Cole as Carolyn, the boss, and Finnemore himself as her perennially perky son Arthur. And today Alison Steadman arrives as Carolyn's sister. They haven't spoken for years. Arthur hasn't bothered to think about that as he's planned a cheery birthday trip for them all. To Helsinki. He's booked it on his Mum's credit card. And she thought it was proper business.

John Finnemore's new situation comedy has the benefit of a superb cast. Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole and Benedict Cumberbatch give their all to this story of a small charter airline whose single plane is flown by one blasé old know-it-all (Allam) and one fiercely competitive young thruster (Cumberbatch). The whole shebang is owned by a fearsome divorcée (Cole) who has come by the plane in a divorce settlement. Her other inheritance is a dim son (played by the author) whose meek optimism is amply reflected in the laughter from the studio audience.

The fear and joys of flying have been a comedy staple for decades, and every joke it is possible to make has probably been made. The challenge is to tell the old jokes in a new way. So step forward, experienced wordsmith (Dead Ringers, That Mitchell and Webb Sound) John Finnemore, with this new six-part sitcom about a one-plane outfit run by an autocratic divorcée (Stephanie Cole, doing her usual posh bully bit).

Her aircraft has two pilots, one a jaded cynic with a dodgy past who can, though, actually fly (played to worldweary perfection by Roger Allam) and one who seemed to have got his wings through a correspondence college (Benedict Cumberbatch, showing he can do situation comedy as well as he does everything else in the thesp game).

Chuck in Finnemore himself as Cole's keen but dim son-of-all work, plus an unusually high level of well-researched technical information about flying, and you have a half-hour that flies by (fnaarg fnaarg).