Chitra Ramaswamy

Mum review - cliched take on the reality of being a mum

Lesley Manville suffuses her character with warmth and melancholy, but there is more to motherhood than 'keep calm and carry on ironing'.

Peter Kay's Car Share is a direct descendant of Victoria Wood's brand of northern soulful comedy: deceptively simple, heartwarming, and delighting in the inherently naff. The first series garnered loads of praise and became one of the most watched shows on BBC iPlayer thanks to its basic but lovely premise: two colleagues who fancy each other a bit commute to work in a car. Now back for a second series, though with only four episodes, it's more of the same, though Kayleigh has moved in with her sister and, for the first half of the episode, commutes to work by public transport. In such a small upholstered world this counts as a major plot shift.

They share about a million phone calls as John (Kay) listens to the Now That's What I Call Music! (48) CD Kayleigh has given him, singing lustily along to Hear'Say's Pure and Simple and picking his nose and looking at it. There's a road rage encounter with an elderly cyclist that by the end of the working day has gone viral on YouTube, and a singalong to Bardo's One Step Further playing on Forever FM (which is still "playing timeless hits now and forever"). Mostly, though, this is comedy so gentle I didn't actually laugh.

Our Friend Victoria review

You won't learn much in this tribute to Victoria Wood, but you'll chuckle and feel warm in that uniquely BBC way.

Jonathan Creek review

It's not easy pulling off the classic Christmas combo of spooky and cosy, but this special makes it look (super)natural.

The Circuit review

Sharon 'Catastrophe' Horgan and Dennis Kelly have some dark fun with the quintessential middle-class institution.

In The Rebel we rubbed up against the ageing population again. This time in the form of 70-year-old anarchic ex-mod Henry Palmer, played with characteristic booming glee by Simon Callow. A new sitcom adapted by Private Eye cartoonist Andrew Birch from his own cartoon strip series, there were some nice spiky moments and lots of proper swearing and other mildly radical things that no British person can wholly dislike. Such as Palmer beating a police officer with a teddy bear, blowing up an ATM, smashing a shopping trolley into a supermarket, and shouting: "Gay, my arse!" while representing himself in court. Lots of deckchair smashing, Pink Floyd, and no mention of data whatsoever ensued. Some things don't change.

Cold Feet reunion - will the 90s hit work in 2015?

Robert Bathurst, Fay Ripley, John Thomson, Hermione Norris and James Nesbitt have been seen together on the set of ITV's revival - but will the show survive without Helen Baxendale?

Bill Bailey on cockatoos and his new stand-up tour

Ask Bill Bailey about his stand-up tour and somehow you end up with a lesson on the behaviour of cockatoos. What to do? Throw away the script and enjoy the surreal ride.

Ade Edmondson interview

"I made a complete mess of it and everyone is very cross with me," Ade Edmondson admits in regards to the failed Bottom reunion. "Rik... well, he nearly understands why I don't want to do it. Anyway, I feel a lot better for it. I wasn't enjoying it at all".

Interview: W. Kamau Bell - Standing up to racism (Link expired)

American W. Kamau Bell uses PowerPoint, statistics and breaking news to create his Fringe show comedy. The result is seriously funny, says Chitra Ramaswamy.