Chris O'Dowd

A season of autobiographical comic shorts, where top names in British comedy write, narrate, star and sometimes direct dramatisations of their pasts. It opens with Victoria Wood's film about Eunice, an eight-year-old who is spending a rather gloomy Christmas with her dad in 1961. A visit to Mrs Whitefield's home changes things, as Eunice realises that precious memories can never be forgotten. Chris O'Dowd's story relates his childhood fear and distrust of Santa Claus and his plan to sabotage the big guy in the red suit's visit. It's gentle, nostalgic comedy that aims to leave you with a suitably glowing, festive feeling.

A nightly season of short autobiographical films featuring some of Britain's best comic talent opens tonight with stories by Victoria Wood and Chris O'Dowd. Dawn French, Stephen Fry, Bill Bailey, Kathy Burke, Jo Brand and Catherine Tate are among those writing, narrating and starring in these seasonal dramatisations of their lives, often with stories recalled from their childhood. It's a bit hit-and-miss. Wood's is on first, though hers is the only story not to feature a younger version of herself. The IT Crowd's O'Dowd follows with an amusing story of why as a boy he thought Santa was a "big weirdo".

A delightfully juvenile episode in this Bafta-winning sitcom that's improved with time, and is now in its fourth series. Reynholm (Matt Berry) joins a cult, Jen (Katherine Parkinson) joins a band, and Roy (Chris O'Dowd) is unexpectedly kissed on the backside by a masseur. The remainder of the programme largely involves the characters - all corporate misfits - finding different ways to say "bum". It's cheap, puerile... and very funny.

The adorable Moss (Richard Ayoade) goes from loser to schmoozer when a string of victories on TV's Countdown gains him admittance to a secret, exclusive club where men in jam-jar specs, checked shirts and fabric ties are fawned over by scantily clad women. Lunatic flights of fancy are what this series does best and Moss's experiences in this Bizarro-style universe don't disappoint. Sure, the typically odd twists of fate that afflict his luckless colleagues Jen (Katherine Parkinson) and Roy (Chris O'Dowd) back in the real world feel tacked on, but the sight of Moss playing the urban "Street Countdown" around burning braziers, a baying mob and wire fencing is a winningly loopy one. I can certainly see his clear-eyed threat to a slang-talking opponent of "I came here to drink milk and kick ass... and I've just finished my milk" finding its way on to geek chic T-shirts.

A welcome return for the Bafta-winning sitcom set in a corporation's dingy computer department. This is the start of series four. Many would have wielded the axe after a patchy debut run. The show's stay of execution was largely down to affection for writer/director Graham Linehan - the man behind Father Ted and Black Books, Chris Morris collaborator and recipient of comedy's Ronnie Barker Award last year. His creation is now worthy of those credentials, going from strength to strength. Tonight's opening episode is entitled Jen the Fredo, after the weak Corleone brother in The Godfather, and is crammed with knowing nods to the revered Mafia movie. Desperate to escape IT, Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is made Entertainments Manager by unreconstructed boss Douglas (Matt Berry) - a man given to pronouncements such as, "I like my women how I like my toast. Hot and consumable with butter." Jen's new job means showing braying businessmen a good time - and a theatre trip to The Vagina Monologues isn't quite the ticket. Back in the bunker, geeky Moss (Richard Ayoade) is devising Dungeons & Dragons-style role-play games and heartbroken Roy (Chris O'Dowd) keeps weepily guzzling white wine at his desk. All these plot strands come together ingeniously. Most laughs come from Berry and Ayoade's more cartoonish characters, but Linehan isn't too proud to write in the odd pratfall and it's so well-acted, one scene is genuinely touching, despite its silliness.

The best theme tune on TV blasts us back into the basement of the Reynholm Industries tower for series four of the comedy they might have called Take Me to the Geek. Our favourite IT support team is out of sorts. Roy (Chris O'Dowd) is getting over a relationship break-up and gazing at photographs of himself with his former beloved - a waste of time, since he's electronically blotted her out of them all. Jen (Katherine Parkinson) has applied for the job of company ents officer, even though everyone tells her sternly, "It's not for you." And Moss (Richard Ayoade) is fine-tuning a role-play fantasy game that requires a 20-sided dice. It's good to have the trio back, even though tonight's episode doesn't show the series at its demented best: this is a sitcom that's lovable even when it isn't hilarious.

There's something about The IT Crowd that gets to us. There's something about the characters and the relentlessly positive tone that means we're drawn into it in a very unusual way. When we interviewed Chris O'Dowd for that ITV2 DJ sitcom thing a year or so ago, we kept calling him Roy. It somehow manages to be both not great and great. It has witty lines which shouldn't be. Many of the jokes are telegraphed a mile of dialogue away. It's just so gosh darned loveable.

The first episode is exactly as you'd expect (the second is better - and the one which features on the trailer - with a mean game of Street Countdown). Jen gets a new job in charge of hospitality for "business men" (a bunch of 70s sexists) while Moss organises an intense Dungeons and Dragons and Roy deals with a break-up. You know what is going to happen but that doesn't matter.

The IT Crowd is so packed with je ne sais quoi that we don't know what to make of it.

I haven't been a fan of The IT Crowd in the past, so either this funny opener to season four has climbed a couple of rungs up the comedy ladder or I was totally wrong.

The four leads all seem to tot­­ally inhabit their characters much more than they did when we last saw them 18 months ago and ­everything about it feels that much more relaxed.

A fifth series has already been commissioned which only makes sense - at only six episodes a piece, it would take four British series to make one full-length series in the US.

And that alone could be another reason why it has taken until now for this show to really bed in enough to regularly provide laughs.

Creator Graham Linehan has said he'll write the next series with a team rather than on his own, which should also keep the quality right up there.

Tonight Jen (Katherine Parkinson) has applied for the job of Entertainments Manager at Reynholm Industries, unaware that the role traditionally involves the messy business of procuring hookers for business clients. Happily, Moss (Richard Ayoade) and Roy (Chris O'Dowd) come to the rescue with some alternative amusements - and a sub-plot involving Roy's freshly broken heart that will have geeks sobbing on to their keyboards like babies.

It's the final episode of this sitcom, which is set in an independent radio station and has been more good than bad. Chris O'Dowd (The IT Crowd) plays Lindsay Carol, a passionate but uncool DJ. After last week's unfortunate attempt to move into television, he and his sidekick Dom Cox (Kevin Bishop) deal with an appearance by the rock band The Charlatans.

What is it with ITV putting their best original content on their obscure channels late at night? They stick this wittyish sitcom on after Gossip Girl and the absolutely woeful Celebrity Juice. The final episode of the series shows how it has grown from an uncertain start into a show that can actually make you laugh. Chris O'Dowd is blessed with a comic presence and the rest of the cast back him up manfully. Yes, it tries too hard - the swearing is too self-conscious - but the impressively consistent "cool" nature of special guests (Charlatans this week) is somehow admirable. Because of the nature of music, it will date horribly and with ITV spiralling down the tubes they won't make a second series, so you may as well catch this final episode.