David Baddiel

Sue Perkins has become ubiquitous at the BBC in the last few years, whether eating peculiar period food or learning to conduct orchestras or telling us about Mrs Dickens/Maria Von Trapp or, as co-host of The Great British Bake-Off, making bad puns about buns. Someone, somewhere, has decided we can't get enough of her. You may have your own feelings about this. Well, here she is again, allegedly going back to her comedy roots with her own sitcom, where she plays Sara, a neurotic vet who's about to turn 40 but hasn't yet managed to tell her parents that she's gay.

Despite being kind of annoying, she has supportive friends (including ever-reliable performers Nicola Walker and Joanna Scanlan) and is able to attract hot ladies like Shelley Conn, who is charmed by Sara's rotten patter and way with extracting barbed wire from dogs' paws.

Around 50 per cent of the show is laboured animal slapstick - there is a dead cat which is lugged around to decreasing effect - and the other half is meant to be touching, as Sara wrestles with her inadequacies and her friends urge her to finally come out to her folks. It's an awkward mix. The comedy just isn't that funny and the sentiment isn't that interesting. At times I felt a bit of second-hand embarrassment and - worst of all - the show reminded me of two grim indulgent sitcoms of years past: Baddiel's Syndrome, in which David Baddiel and his mates failed miserably at doing a Seinfeld, and Rhona, in which Rhona Cameron and her mates (including Perkins' double act and Bake-Off partner Mel Giedroyc) failed at doing an Ellen. What they all have in common is that their stars aren't actually actors but stand-ups, and that the other two only lasted one series. There's a lesson there.

The return of a series that was binned after one episode last month - up against Africa on Wednesday night, it died on its backside. Now, in a less high-profile slot, it continues its exploration of the commercial end of comedy by looking at how managers and agents ensure that the nation's top comics earn pop-star bucks. Rhod Gilbert and Jo Brand, whose extremely candid interviews helped to make the first episode so engrossing, are back along with Eddie Izzard and David Baddiel.

Twitter fiction: David Baddiel

The comedian, novelist and presenter takes up our Twitter-based challenge to come up with a story in 140 characters or fewer.

Morecambe & Wise could bring a smile to the face of a coma patient. Their much-imitated, never-bettered brand of music-hall surrealism has aged remarkably well - it's no real surprise that we're still celebrating this inventive, inclusive and incredibly good-natured double act. This five-part series is an unabashed wallow in their finest moments and also digs a few unfamiliar morsels out of the vaults. For example, the deathless 'André Preview' routine was first performed almost a decade earlier, before being refined into the tour-de-force of Christmas TV-defining tomfoolery that we know and love. One minor caveat; the celebrity reaction shots are truly superfluous - we know Eric and Ern are funny and we don't need to watch David Baddiel or Tamsin Greig laughing at them to have that confirmed. Still, overall, sunshine can consider itself well and truly brought.

My baptism of fire with the famous on the Fringe

Gina Allum recalls David Baddiel and Bettany Hughes in Edinburgh.

Interview: Tom Webb

You may have see Tom Webb on Dave, as David Baddiel's assistant, Aaron, in 'FC Dave' or heard him on programmes such as BBC Radio (Bristol), JNET Radio and Fuse FM. If that wasn't a busy enough schedule, he's set himself the monster task of taking not one, not two, not three, but four different shows to this year's Fringe. Amazingly, he had a spare moment to answer our ten Edinburgh Fringe questions.

David Baddiel to take drugs live on TV

Comedian David Baddiel is to take Class A drugs live on telly as part of a scientific study for a new show.

The Infidel to be given Bollywood remake

David Baddiel and Omid Djalili's film The Infidel has been snapped up by Bollywood for a remake in Hindi.

Video - David Baddiel: Blockbusters are hard to predict

David Baddiel, writer and co-producer of the independent film The Infidel, says commercial viability in the movie business is rarely straightforward or easy to predict.