David Walliams

Crisper and less gross than the last British series, the American Little Britain was made for cable channel HBO. New characters include an astronaut riddled with feelings of inadequacy and a granny who loves crystal meth, but the familiar conceits work well too: witness Marjorie Dawes briefing her class on questions for a visiting Rosie O'Donnell: Let's not go on about her sexuality. Let's stick to why she's so fat.

Matt Lucas and David Walliams attempted to storm the US with this bizarre transatlantic hybrid of their comedy series. It didn't exactly meet with critical acclaim in America, but British viewers will still find their favourite characters, as well as a few new American ones too, such as Bing Gordyn, the eighth astronaut on the moon.

Fans of Little Britain's savage brand of panto humour are in for an extended treat. Matt Lucas and David Walliams have made a six-part series in the US. Vicky Pollard is off to boot camp; Daffyd Thomas goes to university, Sebastian Love becomes prime minister and Lou and Andy are in search of a miracle cure, US-style. In television terms, this is an event of seismic proportions. It is produced by Simon Fuller, the creator of American Idol and the studio sketches will be directed by David Schwimmer from Friends. For millions of viewers, that's Friday night sorted out for the foreseeable future.

An American series of Little Britain could have been its undoing, but it's given some old favourites a freshness they badly needed.

And while it would have been easy for Matt Lucas and David Walliams to use their new series for network HBO just to ridicule Americans, it turns out it's still the Brits who are the butt of the jokes.

Mmm, not sure about this to be honest. My opinions on Little Britain have wavered from declaring Lucas and Walliams as comedy gods (around the time of series two), to charlatans who were happy taking huge pay checks to write barely constructed sketches that insulted the audience's intelligence (around the time of the woeful - no, it really was - series three).

But this might just be a different beast as the pair bring the Little Britain format to life across the pond in a series made for HBO. There are new characters - I particularly like Bing Gordyn, the bitter seventh astronaut to land on the moon - but old favourites like Vicky Pollard are still on hand to keep things familiar enough for the home crowds. The jury is out, but they might just get away with it...

Little Britain USA: I offered Diaz $10 to do splits

Little Britain USA star David Walliams is interviewed by The Sun.

Jimmy Carr returns with the sixth - yes, sixth - series of this consistently funny panel game, sitting smugly between the announcement of who's getting kicked out of the Big Brother house and the first evictee's chat with Davina.

Comedians Sean Lock and Jason Manford are still in the team captains' chairs and tonight they'll be joined by repeat guests (also known as show stalkers) Vic Reeves and David Walliams, who have appeared more than 10 times between them.

The inessential comedy panel show returns for an astonishing sixth series, with Jimmy Carr again marshalling six comedians as they recite jokes based on surveys and statistics. Returning as team captains are Sean Lock, generally the best spontaneous contributor by far, and Peter Kay-ish Manchester comic Jason Manford.

It's all a bit stilted and choppily edited, but it can attract decent guests (Vic Reeves and Griff Rhys Jones were on last year - David Walliams appears tonight) and will do well in the ratings.

That two people could write a sketch which involves Steve Coogan saying, "Don't press that red button", and then Matt Lucas pressing that red button (and that was it) boggles the mind. Can you imagine getting up from the computer desk and saying to your colleague, "Right, that's that one finished, let's take a tea break"? Talk about insubstantial ... This was a terrible, terrible comedown for a show that I'm still happy to admit once loving.

Lucas and Walliams, by contrast, seem content to sit in a comfort zone, churning out near-identical jokes over and over and over again. Whereas the League's characters became deeper and more complex over time, Little Britain turned into The Fast Show. Characters would come on, do the same old routine, say their catchphrases and go.