David Stubbs (II)

This year would have provided rich pickings for satire if only it hadn't been so hopelessly tragic. The cruel and relentless spate of celebrity deaths hasn't helped much, either. Still, Rhys Thomas, co-creator of 2014 mock docum The Life Of Rock With Brian Pern, is as qualified as anyone to have a crack. In this show, he seamlessly re-edits film and TV footage from 2016 to create an alternative and welcome take on a wretched annus.

The Four Candles/Fork Handles sketch, ribald puns and lengthy armchair monologues - such was the stuff of all our Saturday nights. This three-part documentary, first aired in 2013, tells the story of the duo, with tonight's opener recalling how they came to work together, having cut their teeth appearing alongside the likes of John Cleese. Contributors include Al Murray, Clive Anderson and the late Ronnie Corbett himself.

This seasonal two-parter takes place two years after Kate's death, with Sarah Lancashire's Caroline taking up a job at an underperforming school in Huddersfield, much to the chagrin of her family. Meanwhile, a nasty accident involving Robbie triggers haunting memories for Gillian, and ever-exasperating Celia (Anne Reid) ropes Alan into amateur dramatics, prompting a memorable protest from Derek Jacobi of "I can't act!"

With the Beeb currently, and in some cases ill-advisedly, reworking classic sitcoms, here's a tie-in quiz show hosted by Ben Miller in which celebrity funny folk test their knowledge of the genre that made them famous. Jennifer Saunders, Stephen Mangan, Jessica Hynes and Lee Mack are among the contestants. As Pointless fans will attest, however, celebrities are useless at quizzes - none of the luminaries get the Reg Varney question, an old pub quiz chestnut.

Jack Dee is all over the EU referendum, it seems. Tonight, he stars as volatile former journalist Oliver, now working at the Conservative HQ's Unity Unit, in a spin-off from the comedy Ballot Monkeys, scripted by Outnumbered creators Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. Written in the hours before transmission to keep the comedy bang up to date, it satirically follows both sides of the debate, and also has an international dimension, with Donald Trump's plane and Vladimir Putin's office among the settings. Claire Skinner and Amelia Bullmore co-star.

Joe Wilkinson and Dave Earl's amiable new series - starring Craig Cash and Sue Johnston among others - is set in the clubhouse of lowly football team Redbridge Rovers, whose fans dream of promotion to the Evo-Stik Premier League. It's essentially about the characters who congregate in the canteen to banter and bicker very Britishly, and the rich bathos of their exchanges: "If we win today, we go to 16th. You don't get that buzz at a llama park."

This new series is based on the popular podcast No Such Thing As a Fish, in which the researchers of QI unearth and kick around their most interesting obscure facts of the week. This spin-off applies the treatment to current events: it takes a look at the week's affairs, but in search of interesting gems, rather than taking the usual panel show satirical broadsides. With James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber.

Jo Brand returns as Kim Wilde, the NHS nurse from Getting On, coping with a demanding but poorly paid job as well as three kids and a dog. Omid Djalili co-stars as her husband, a private hire driver. Tonight, he's forced to rescue Kim from an emergency with a passenger in the back. This is isn't so much a sitcom about predicaments and foibles, however, as a warming portrayal of good people getting on with life under near-impossible circumstances.

The comedy panel show take a trip Stateside in this new series. James Corden is a bit of a star across the Atlantic, so he plays host to Jamie Redknapp, Andrew Flintoff and Jack Whitehall as they join him for a boys' adventure across the US in an RV, taking in the views and undertaking various American-style competitive actitivities with forfeits for the loser. Will there be bantz? Ah yes, there will be bantz.

Comedy-drama about the rise of snooker and the fall of Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, who ignited during the power cut-ridden 70s, a symbol of the reckless flamboyance of the decade. He is undone by Steve Davis, protege of Barry Hearn. It's a story frequently told in one-liners - "Flair player? That just means you miss." However, Luke Treadaway brilliantly conveys Higgins' auto-destructiveness, while Will Merrick eventually gets beyond Davis's cultivated robo-nerd image.