Dan Skinner

In the 1970s no more than three minutes was permitted to pass without sighting a gentleman's handsome chest foliage, groomed as much as his luxuriant lip warmer, and this highly chucklesome Seventies-set comedy is careful to include a historically accurate man carpet.

Written by Emma Kennedy and starring Katherine Parkinson and Dan Skinner as Brenda and Tony Kennedy, it's Brenda's aspiration to exhibit her modern sophistication by holding their street's first dinner party and to serve a classy Italian dish called 'la-san-ier'.

But this is the 1970s, when 'la-san-ier' was harder to find than the bar in a pub, blanketed by full-strength tar fags, which forces Tony and daughter Emma (Lucy Hutchison) to enlist the aid of a neighbour with the connections to provide Italian grub. This undertaking has the anxious energy of a drug deal, and what the neighbour drags the Kennedys into is a dinner party which is even better than Abigail's.

Interview: Dan Skinner, Daniel Simonsen and Ellie White

Today, we bring you our catch-up with Bob's regular house guests, Dan Skinner, Daniel Simonsen and Ellie White.

Disaster strikes this week as a geriatric rat steals Bob's wig on the morning of the Toupee Wearer Of The Year Awards. Don't you hate it when that happens? Vic is on the case, though seeing as he's hopped up on Bosh's (Dan Skinner) home-made energy drink, that might not necessarily be a good thing. Other details poking out from the shattered remnants of a plot include Beef (Matt Berry) complaining about a frying pan through the medium of song, and a guest appearance from TV's resident scam-foiler, Dominic Littlewood.

Vic and Bob's rumbustious riff on the trad sitcom continues with its best episode to date, centred on Vic's brother Bosh's (Dan Skinner) attempts to convince his probation officer (Luther star Nikki Amuka-Bird) that he is in gainful employment. He determines that the best way to do this is to open a pop-up restaurant in Bob's humble abode, with the double act installed as its head chefs. Plot deviations include Matt Berry stomping about in cast-iron boots and a very funny mishap with a nerve agent.

Dan Skinner on wonderful, glorious, unholy Fringe mess

The Edinburgh festival is like the Death Star. You can try and escape, but you are eventually, inevitably, dragged back in by its powerful magnetic force.

This week's new live comedy

Previews of Paul Chowdhry, Ahir Shah, Dan Skinner and Oram & Meeten.

There was general and justifiable outrage when BBC2 pulled the plug on Shooting Stars. But how did Vic and Bob react? By the looks of this new show, they shrugged their shoulders and went off to C4 to do something incredibly similar. Is that enough? Well, there's no Jack Dee to have his face compared to things. No Ulrika. And Dan Skinner has reconstituted himself as John Meringue, a sort of Viking real ale enthusiast. There are skits, absurd live performances, non-sequiteurial questions and baffled guests (tonight; Eddie Izzard, Chelsee Healey and Thomas Turgoose). The resulting show will have you sniggering along, even as you contemplate the duo's bare-faced cheek. Vic and Bob truly couldn't be boring if they tried but, assuming it gets a series, this could go either way.

You'd expect this show to be shambolic - that's partly the point. But this is a real dog's breakfast. The skits are too many and the laughs too few, while Angelos lacks either the venom to demolish a guest or the variety of approach to deconstruct one. Tonight's star, Amy Childs, makes for a self-evidently soft target and she's a good sport, but the 'vajazzle' phenomenon is venerable enough to be beyond satire. Best mate Gupta outstays his welcome and the Gabby Logan skits are already looking tired (although a cameo from old flame Ulrika is a nice touch), while Professor Green's contribution is minimal. Dan Skinner is a great comic performer, but this doesn't feel like the best vehicle for his talents: more than ever, Angelos seems more like a brilliant comic foil than convincing leading man.

Shooting Stars fans will no doubt be keen on seeing at least one vestige of the surreal panel game live on in this Comedy Showcase pilot - which has already been commissioned for a full series in 2012.

Dan Skinner plays the award-winning burger van owner Angelos, making his own somewhat shambolic show alongside his friends Gupta (Adeel Akhtar), Kenny (Seymour Mace) and Margaret (Hannah Walters). The show features sketches, interviews, songs and audience participation.

As with any sketch show, these are always measured on their "hit and miss ratio". I would say that it's certainly more on the hit side, especially with it's range of physical and visual humour.

Yes, I know it's not the most sophisticated, but it's just pleasing to see.

Everything from the opening silhouette of Angelos at a mike, which turns out to be a chicken drumstick, to him taking a bath in the house of an unsuspecting audience member, is just... pleasing. And no doubt the more troublesome sketches will be ironed out in the forthcoming series, which should be well worth a watch.