Claire Skinner

Locating a hamster under the floorboards is just one among the parental crises tackled by Sue and Pete (Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis) as they return for a fifth - and final - series of the sitcom that makes a virtue out of being out-manoeuvred by your offspring. The kids are no longer cute youngsters, their barbed teenage backchat more sullen than sparky. Except for the now strapping Ben (Daniel Roche), who has high hopes of landing a part in his school's production of Spartacus: The Musical.

Radio Times review

It's now possible to measure the passage of time not just by how your own children have grown up but by the way the Outnumbered kids have changed. And it's frightening.

Little Karen has started secondary school and is almost unrecognisable with her dark, swishy hairstyle, while 14-year-old Ben is much bigger than older brother Jake, who's got a tattoo, sideburns and is learning to drive. Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner look exactly the same, though.

It's gently entertaining but somehow the cheeky dialogue that made us laugh when delivered by cute yet precocious children back in 2007 doesn't sound so funny coming from teenagers.

Hugh Dennis & Claire Skinner interview

TV Choice meets Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner who play Pete and Sue Brockman...

Grayson Perry is one of the names - alongside writer/director Kate Hardie - behind this touching tale of a transvestite struggling to come to terms with his urge to dress as a woman. The fear and self-loathing plaguing young Gary (Tom Brooke) are made flesh in the form of Tommy McDonnell's Frank, an obnoxious "inner voice" that adds pathos to a subtle drama that probes aspects of self-identity with wit and intelligence. Neil Dudgeon and Claire Skinner add sterling support.

I am still a little worried that Harvey Easter, the indefatigably cheery protaganist of Mr Blue Sky, will someday soon rip the mask of optimism from his face and go on a killing rampage, starting with his live-in son-in-law-to-be. As this young man, a grimestep DJ who is paid in energy drinks and therefore returns to the Easter household at 5am on a Red Bull high, is called Kill-R, it will give Harvey the opportunity to snarl: "Who's the killer now?" as he takes aim.

When I reviewed last year's first series of Andrew Collins' slow-burning hit comedy, I thought Harvey was bound to 'reverse into gloom' at some stage. The second series opened with his entire family kidnapped and replaced almost wholesale by the cast of TV's Outnumbered, but plucky old Harvey just got on with the job of being happy.

So Mark Benton's Harvey, a performance which is an essay in finely nuanced felicity (and how much harder must this be to play than the sobs of a broken man?) didn't falter even though the detached irony of Rebecca Front, last year's Mrs E, was replaced by Claire Skinner bringing with her Tyger Drew-Honey, both from Outnumbered. Skinner is the leading exponent of wringing comedic value out of the middle-class mum, determined never to yell "Because I said so." And I'm sure I'll get used to her in this, but for now I can't imagine her without chiselled-jawed, puppy-eyed Hugh Dennis as the husband who is a perpetual disappointment.

Tyger took over the role of 16-year-old Robbie with aplomb, asking for money to buy fruit - street slang for drugs - while their older child and bride-to-be, Charlie, was played by Rosamund Hanson with a quirkiness heightened by what was either a speech impediment or a plethora of tongue piercings. The darkness in this solidly engineered comedy, it transpires, is not embedded in Harvey's alter-ego, but swirls all around him as he attempts to hold it back like the tone-deaf, out-of-condition superhero he is.

Preview: Mr Blue Sky series two

Second season of Andrew Collins' warmly cosy Radio 4 comedy, starring Claire Skinner and Rosamund Hanson.

Sue and Pete (Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis) decide to go on holiday to the Canary Islands... on Christmas Day. Cue a well-worked against-the-clock farce involving a dental emergency, a house-sitting sister whose boyfriend may or may not have a criminal record, and a visit to Sue's father (the excellent David Ryall) in hospital.

After four years and as many series, this sitcom about the daily life of a middle-class family in south London still manages that rare feat of being genuinely funny. Tonight's festive special follows the misadventures of Pete Brockman (Hugh Dennis) and his wife Sue (Claire Skinner) as they take their family to the Canary Islands. They're hoping to spend a sunny, stress-free Christmas - doubtless a prelude to a comic disaster.

Now in their 21st year, the British Comedy Awards have long served as a bellwether for the state of British comedy, from the quirky satire of the early 1990s, through the energetic sketch shows of the mid- to late-90s, to the recent success of family-friendly stand-up comics like Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre and John Bishop. Thanks to a sharp host, a ready supply of funny clips and a suitably witty audience, they've also been one of the few live awards ceremonies actually worth watching.

Tonight's event is hosted live by Jonathan Ross. Leading the nominees is Miranda Hart, who is up for four awards, while Harry Hill gets three nods. Hart, last year's Queen of Comedy winner, is up for the award again, with David Mitchell, Telegraph agony uncle Graham Norton, Jack Whitehall, Jo Brand and Sarah Millican also in the running. Tamsin Greig and Tom Rosenthal are nominated for best TV comedy actress and best comedy breakthrough artist respectively for their roles in Friday Night Dinner, while Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner have been singled out for their contribution to Outnumbered. Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville receives a nomination for his role in the Olympic comedy Twenty Twelve.

So here's the situation chez Brockman as we pick up from last week's surprises (spoiler alert for those who haven't seen the last episode - although, to be fair, it's a sitcom not a conspiracy thriller): Auntie Angela is staying, because her American husband turned abusive, but his lawyers are pursuing her because she brought his teenage daughter with her. Does this mean Sue and Pete are now harbouring someone guilty of child abduction?

Plus Jake has started dating a 19-year-old pole dancer, which is also technically illegal as he's only 15. And there's one more rogue element: an unexpected arrival at the door that produces a brilliant reaction from Claire Skinner as Sue.