David Stubbs (II)

Originally a Channel 4 pilot, the playfully anachronistic Chickens stars Inbetweeners Joe Thomas and Simon Bird, alongside Jonny Sweet. They play George, Cecil and Bert, left behind in Rittle-On-Sea in 1914 as the rest of the men head off to the great war. Living together in a cottage daubed with scornful graffiti by the townswomen, the trio - a conscientious objector, a flat-footed reject and a bounder - make comedic hay of their moral and sexual shame in this highly promising opener.

It's back to basics for Coogan as he and a skeleton crew tour a series of medium-sized venues in Australia and New Zealand, showcasing Paul and Pauline Calf, Tony Ferrino and Alan Partridge. It was Coogan's idea, but he occasionally betrays Partridgian tetchiness at the privations he must undergo: "soul-sucking" venues, lousy hotels and problems with seating arrangements. He's game, though, and you feel he's very much pushing at an open door with the Aussie audiences. Continues Wednesday.

A You've Been Framed! for the 21st century, stuffed with viral hits culled from YouTube of dancing dogs, collapsing shelves in warehouses and a screaming man holding a condom out of a car window and the like. No man-made comedy can match all this, of course, but so that the viewer doesn't feel short-changed, Walsh fills out the show with some passable sketch material and standup, musing on such mildly risque and diverse topics as one-night stand embarrassment and bulk toilet roll purchase.

This week, in Sky's showcase for emerging talent, Isy Suttie, AKA Peep Show's Dobby, co-writes and stars in a short, surreal "musical", Miss Wright, about a cafe worker besotted with a railway station employee. The songs don't help. Better is Aphrodite Fry, scripted by seasoned playwright Sarah Solemani of Him & Her, about a Brighton artist disappointed by an extremely short sexual encounter with a local businessman, who hatches a plot to mete out the same treatment to his colleague: to "come and go", so to speak.

Two more shorts for what is effectively a showcase for comic talent old and new, playing interconnected characters all living in Clapham. Johnny Vegas co-writes and stars in the first as Rupert, bereaved proprietor of the Kinky Ink tattoo parlour, whose dad has left him in hock to effete local villain Paul Kaye. It doesn't rise above the sadness of its predicament, however. More successful is Fergus & Crispin, played by Toms Sourton and Palmer, a pair of plummily clueless entrepreneurs. Victorian bingo, anyone?

There's been room for a while in the schedules for a show that reflects the relentless mickey-taking that bonds groups of young males, and this is it. Set in Stockport, amid the world of pub outings, iffy jobs and the faintest hint of recession, it's cheery, cosy stuff, driven by a frantic banjo soundtrack and the assurance of Ricky Tomlinson as the pub landlord. Tonight, our four lads plan a night out, but it's Hodge who literally draws the short straw after a drink-spiking caper goes wrong, forcing him to stand in as chauffeur to a local hardman's drunken girlfriend.

John Bishop's new vehicle is a resolutely family-friendly throwback to the days of The Comedians, when TV standup was a relentless stream of "fella-walked-into-a-bar" jokes that steadfastly avoided any reference to life as actually lived. A cast of thousands are involved, including celebrities from Ricky Hatton and Robbie Williams to ordinary folk, telling creaky jokes that at least crease them up. All this is peppered with occasional pellets of non-abrasive observational humour from smirk-merchants such as Jason Manford.

It's Christmas Eve, the biggest shopping day of the year at Valco supermarket, and it falls to manager Gavin to rouse his staff to the task of keeping up with demand for sprouts, port and Stilton. However, there's a grinch in the works: rival store manager Warren Clarke, determined to secure the most takings on the big day by foul means. Clarke, like Jane Horrocks as the lovelorn assistant manager, delivers a better performance than the tepid script and characterisation merit.

As ever in these media-saturated times, there is plenty for Charlie Brooker to sink his satirical teeth into over the last 12 months, though for once, not all of it has been bad. He'll be reflecting on the Olympics, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the jailing of members of Pussy Riot and, of course, the US presidential election in which the Republicans both scared us and added to the gaiety of nations. Limmy, Sharon Horgan and Peter Serafinowicz also contribute.

This comedy drama has delivered record-breaking ratings for Sky Arts, hopefully as a result of its excellence as an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's short stories as well as the celebrity of Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm, both also superb. In tonight's final episode, the Doctor's morphine addiction, an inevitable response to a snowbound life in which every knock at the door brings a fresh hell, becomes overwhelming. The series' triumphant tragi-hilarious balance is particularly well struck in the incident of the husband with the dazzling trousers.