Charles Dance

Stephen Mangan stars in and co-scripts this fast-paced and funny new series about Richard, a put-upon therapist trying to make a new career by carrying out sessions online. Among his clients are a woman whose life and aspirations are defined by Instagram and an aggressive creditor who agrees to take sessions to offset some of Richard's debts. Charles Dance and Richard E Grant co-star, as does The IT Crowd's Katherine Parkinson, as Richard's partner, who is constantly accompanied by a male friend.

Sacha Baron Cohen's rapping rude boy from Staines made his big-screen debut with this story that just about sustains its 90 minutes. Ali G is persuaded into politics by a conniving Charles Dance and then has to save PM Michael Gambon from a conspiracy, sort out world peace and ensure the future of his local community centre, where he teaches a Keep it Real class. All with the sort-of-subversive, gross good humour of the TV series.

With a flittering light finally in sight at the end of the slime-slathered tunnel that was 2016, Jimmy Carr returns to help roast a year that left us all feeling burned. Richard Ayoade, Rob Delaney, Mel Giedroyc, Sarah Millican, David Mitchell and Romesh Ranganathan make up this year's teams, with Jon Snow, Charles Dance and a roster of celebrity inquisitors on hand to posit questions on everything from Boaty McBoatface to Brexit.

10 surprising truths we've learnt from WILTY guests

From the celeb that went to school with Bin Laden, to Mel Giedroyc's very cheeky snog.

Radio Times review

The gripes up for consideration run the gamut from the trivial (people who make up rules in Monopoly) to the vehemently political (George Osborne and "all his friends in the cabinet").

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Charles Dance and comedian Andi Osho are the nominees, and surprisingly it's the dandyish star of Changing Rooms who proves most entertaining and witty. His diatribe against beige "in all its gory; its understated, delusional blandeur" is a particular highlight.

There's not too much combative banter between the guests, except when Osho claims Charles Dance sounds like the sort of name you'd make up to avoid embarrassment at an STD clinic. Delightful.

A drum roll, please, for the much-anticipated, always enjoyable offcuts episode. These are the attempts by celebrities to fool other celebrities that ended up on the cutting room floor, not because they weren't funny (they are) but because they were surplus to requirements - or just a bit too guessable.

But we can still revel in Charles Dance's claim that he answers the phone in a Belfast accent or Dermot O'Leary's obsessive approach to stacking crockery. Best of all is a duel between Lee Mack and Richard Osman over whether the latter invented a superhero called Snooker Table Man as a child. We're fairly sure Osman is improvising furiously, but if he is, he's doing a great job...

Made by Steve Coogan's Baby Cow stable, Common Ground is a collection of ten 15-minute comedy shorts, each set in a neighbourhood in south London. Having featured Simon Day, Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes and Charles Dance in previous weeks, the series concludes with Barry - based around Alex Lowe's octogenarian little Englander character which he honed by calling in to Iain Lee's LBC programme in the mid-2000s. With his wife having run off with a retired financial advisor, Barry embarks on a bucket list with his grandson.

It may not be earth-shatteringly original, but it's worth it just to hear Barry's view on pink candy floss: 'It's like eating Barbara Cartland's minge.' A (fictional) former member of So Solid Crew takes over a church choir in the far-funnier Nell, Ted and Marlon. It quickly descends into a creepy love triangle (with One Foot In the Grave actress Annette Crosbie occasionally chiming in with some unexpected filth); the humour is sharp, surreal and pleasantly wicked in places.

Little Crackers has been a highlight at recent Christmases and I was hoping for more of the same from Common Ground, another batch of short films with a humourous edge. But both Floyd, with Charles Dance as an ageing rocker, and Patricia, which had Jessica Hynes as a Tory politician, felt like jokes where no one hadf thought up a punchline. Small doesn't always mean perfectly formed.

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.