Clive James

The great television roles not only give the actor room to contribute but seem to draw upon his essential personality. In Dad's Army, Captain Mainwaring is an extension to absurdity of the fastidiousness Arthur Lowe brings to any role. Lowe's precise movements of the hand, as exquisite as Oliver Hardy's, are translated into Mainwaring's ferociously bulled kit, his hundred different low moans as the shambling platoon fails him yet again.

Sadie, It's Cold Outside (Thames) is a clumsily named new sitcom starring Bernard Hepton as a telly addict and Rosemary Leach as his long-suffering wife. It is Miss Leach's fate to play long-suffering wives, because she has the knack of making long-suffering look charming. The show is written by Jack Rosenthal and could prove amusing.

Most of the other humour shows were drear. Dick Emery (BBC1) was much less comfortable in a Santa outfit than in high heels and Mike Yarwood (BBC1) saddled himself with Max Bygraves. Tonight with Danny La Rue (ATV) was trash.

Parkinson Takes a Christmas Look at Morecambe and Wise (BBC1) did something to restore the spirits, even though we'd seen most of the stuff before. Sketches like the Cleopatra number are now on the limit of how much exposure they can take, but Parky fronted the compilation pretty well. It's nice to be able to toss him a bun, after his recent abominations.

Not that his [Arthur Lowe's] performance is eclectic - it is a subtle unity like everything he attempts. He is also at his peak in the current series of Dad's Army (BBC1), which shows few signs of flagging inspiration.

Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? (BBC1) is repeating its last series. In our house we are watching it all over again.

After two dull episodes, Monty Python (BBC2) was suddenly funny again, thereby ameliorating the viewing week no end. The pressure on the now Cleeseless team to be as good as ever has perhaps been a little fierce, but that's showbiz.

A rock solid script, by Clement and La Frenais. Good comic writing depends on a regular supply of real-life speech patterns - the main reason why success tends to interfere with talent, since it separates the writer from his sources.

Les Dawson starred in Holiday With Strings (Yorkshire), a Galton and Simpson fantasy made suddenly topical by the Court Line floppola. Les was off on a dreadful package holiday, flying with an airline so broke they were raffling the meals. The script was fairly average, but Dawson is easy on the eye: a roly-poly panic merchant who looks as if his whole life is booked with Clarkson's.

With muted cries of rapture let me recommend Sprout (LWT). The situation is Likely Lads minus the fanatical accuracy of ear and observation, but the main character, a bird-fancying no-hoper, is just the job for John Alderton]. After leaving Please Sir, Alderton wasted his gift on a lumbering series called My Wife Next Door, which won prizes only because the prizes concerned were handed out by nitwits. This time he is called upon to invent, and his powers of invention are considerable. At a time when the screen is crawling with unfunny young comedians, John Alderton is a man to value.