Bert Tyler-Moore

Super-silly sitcom about the royal family from the creators of Star Stories, Bert Tyler Moore and George Jeffrie. The gags bang and whoosh like a New Year's Eve fireworks display and W1A's Hugh Skinner is outstanding (and somehow even posher than before) as Prince William, backed up nicely by Harry Enfield as a mildly demented Prince Charles and Haydn Gwynne as a conniving Camilla. The result is quite joyfully daft throughout. Knighthoods all round.

Review: The Windsors

There are some neat, if not side-splitting, lines and enjoyably daft premises, but the show never really takes off. A lot of the scenes have a touch of the Spitting Image about them for sure - but what works as sketch doesn't necessarily sustain for a full narrative.

The Windsors - a real blast of punk comedy

I'm not bang up to date on treasonous acts and how to avoid them, but the writers and cast of The Windsors probably shouldn't expect an invitation to a Buckingham Palace garden party any time soon.

Preview: The Windsors

The Windsors isn't going to win any awards for subtlety and the writers certainly aren't going to win any knighthoods, but if you like seeing royal poshos royally sent up this should put a smile on your face.

Pete isn't doing very well in Pete Versus Life. You'd probably have to say that, on balance, life was winning. Pete wanted to be a sports journalist in the first series, remember? Now he's going for a job as a dog walker.

He gets the job, but it doesn't go well. On their first outing, Glynn, a lovely yellow labrador, is flattened on the London north circular. Things look up briefly when Gracja, his parents' new Polish helper, tells Pete she's going to "how you say, screw your brains". But even that doesn't go to plan - ie happen.

It's fairly standard kind of sitcom fodder. Except for the fact that there are two sports pundits doing a running commentary on Pete's life. As if it was a sports event. And that lifts it, turns it into something quite imaginative and original. It's the kind of idea you can imagine creators George Jeffries and Bert Tyler-Moore coming up with over a beer or two, thinking "genius", then sleeping on it and having serious doubts in the morning - like why would sports commentators be commentating on some bloke's life?

Someone had the courage to commission it, though. Viewers like it: enough watched for this second series to happen. I like it, too. It works, weirdly. And Rafe Spall is nice as Pete. A bit hopeless, but likable. He would be really, being Timothy Spall's son. Hasn't dentistry improved, though, in just one generation?

With the last series of My Family starting later this month, In With The Flynns picks up the sitcom baton and sprints off with it.

Weirdly, both series have American roots. My Family was created by Fred Barron, while The Flynns is executive produced by Caryn Mandabach whose name you'll have seen attached to such monoliths as Roseanne, 3rd Rock from the Sun and Nurse Jackie.

This is a British version of her US show Grounded for Life and it's written by George Jeffrie and Bert Tyler-Moore - the two big comedy brains behind Pete Versus Life and Star Stories.

Where My Family feels forced and artificial to the point of being almost physically painful to watch, In With The Flynns, with its seamless use of flashbacks, is much more relaxed.

Set in Manchester, it stars Will Mellor and Niky Wardley as Liam and Caroline, the harassed young parents of a teenage daughter Chloe and two younger sons.

Warren Clarke plays Liam's dad Jim and Liam's brother Tommy is played by Craig Parkinson - who you'll recognise as the only probation worker to survive the Asbo Five in Misfits.

With Liam and Caroline too busy to keep a proper eye on their kids, it's left to Tommy this week to give them the benefits of his worldly wisdom.

If you're a fan of Seinfeld, you'll probably spot that Tommy has a touch of the Kramer about him - he is a law unto himself and completely Teflon coated so that blame never sticks.

Judging from this first outing, The Flynns could be with us for even longer than My Family has managed.

The gimmick of this new comedy series by Harry Enfield writers Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffries is that Pete (Rafe Spall), a twentysomething aspiring journalist, has his life described by two commentators - one a mad Geordie, the other rather staid - who provide sports-style analysis and statistics as Pete copes with his dysfunctional group of friends. The opener revolves around Pete's attempts to woo an attractive eco-activist. It's very silly and occasionally crude, and whether it will stay funny as the novelty value wears off remains to be seen, but it's promising none the less.