Emma Fryer (I)

Toast of London was picked up from Channel 4's comedy pilot season last year. It's a mildly surreal sitcom about a pretentious actor played by Matt Berry (doing that same "cinema advert voiceover" voice he did in The IT Crowd and the much-missed Garth Marenghi's Dark Place - can it be his actual voice?) Berry also co-wrote it with Arthur Mathews, who co-wrote Father Ted and the late 1990s sketch show, Big Train, which launched half of Britain's current comedy actors.

Toast shares that off-kilter sensibility within a more conventional format: its hero goes through the usual sitcom set-ups, but with a disturbed edge.

For instance, when he meets a potential love interest, she's played by Emma Fryer with a manic laugh and demented body language, as if miming a crane. And she's called Susan Random, one of many deliberately odd character names (Clem Fandango, Jemima Gina, Kikini Bamalam). There's also a sudden, brief musical number which flares up intriguingly and a really unsettling Bruce Forsyth lookalike.

But there are two big flaws: Toast himself isn't that interesting a character and there aren't enough actual laughs. This could develop into something weird and wonderful but for now it's just the former.

This crass - and sometimes inspired - comedy commissioned for E4 is blessed by the presence of Emma Fryer, a gifted comedienne whose promising 2009 sitcom Home Time was cruelly curtailed. Her deluded mobile-phone saleswoman, Janine, is trying to climb the Croydon social ladder. Meanwhile, her equally deluded four male colleagues at the phone shop attempt to launch a series of calamitous sidelines, including an escort agency.

Janine's catastrophic date with a socially awkward busker is a highlight, and Kayvan Novak's deranged return as area manager Razz Prince is terrific.

Emma Fryer interview

The PhoneShop actor Emma Fryer on her retail TV family, growing up in Coventry and the underrated skill of folding clothes.

"The world has no room for cowards," Robert Louis Stevenson maintained. Sky's new comedy does, though, as it follows three loathed (their house is emblazoned with "Just Die" and "Coward Cottage") draft-dodging chickens who have, quite wisely, ducked out of the carnage of the First World War. The trio of cowards, played by Inbetweeners stars Simon Bird and Joe Thomas, who also, jointly, wrote this, and Jonny Sweet, gel nicely together in this undemanding satire. "If you were really keen to help, you would have killed yourself to raise moral," yells a crone at Simon Bird's flat-footed Cecil, who is knitting for the war effort. Bird, Sweet and Thomas are all adept comic actors, and the wonderful Emma Fryer cameos, too.

Tony Pitts and Kevin Eldon's elliptical comedy, about a group of "sheddists" who have set up a kind of shed shanty town on a beach, has had a couple of major cast changes since its acclaimed first series. For a start, Eldon's other work commitments precluded him from writing and acting, but Pitts has taken up the writing slack and Stephen Mangan has ably filled the role of Jimmy.

Suranne Jones also found herself too busy to recommit to the role of Diane, but Rosina Carbone is a great replacement. The absurdist humour is still top-notch and well complemented by lyrical narration from Maxine Peake.

Special mention must go to Emma Fryer, whose deranged turn as Deborah, the Gypsy who breaks into song at the drop of a hat is a hoot.

Two Phoneshop stars (Javone Prince and Steve Brody) have already popped up tonight in Life's Too Short, but this is a bad night for a returning sitcom.

After the first series, you'll already know if Phoneshop's mix of overblown urban patois and crude sexual references is your cup of tea, but tonight's episode starts strong with Jerwayne and Ashley riffing on the theme of lunch options.

If you don't speak street-slang, the few English phrases you do recognise like "M&S Simply range" and "Taste The Difference," leap out at you from the babble to hilarious effect.

You'll also notice there's absolutely no mention of the actual business of selling phones. (Don't tell me they've exhausted all the Pay As You Go jokes already!)

Instead, the male staff become escorts while Janine (Emma Fryer) takes her social life upmarket. You'll have no trouble spotting the moment it ends up back in the gutter.

There was a lot of love on Channel 4's website following the pilot for PhoneShop, which is just as well, because it had been greenlit for a full series before it even went to air.

This well observed, sharply written comedy reunites Ashley and Jerwayne (Andrew Brooke and Javone Prince) to spout more incomprensible rapid-fire banter.

Having survived the infamous one-day trial, Newman (Tom Bennett) is now an official employee and Pay As You Go girl Janine (Emma Fryer) longs to be taken seriously enough to be assistant manager.

Thankfully, there's no mention of manager Lance's sex addiction tonight. Instead, he's fixated on legendary former employee Gary Patel, who is currently at Her Majesty's Pleasure. Meanwhile, a visit from rivals in Croydon forces them all to close ranks to battle the outsiders.

It's very funny, but viewers outside London whose ears aren't assaulted by urban youth-speak every day might want need reassurance that yes, we are still in Britain.

The second sitcom try-out in C4's Comedy Showcase season, and this one packs some more heavyweight comedy credentials. It boasts Ricky Gervais as script editor - a solid gold seal of approval. Disappointingly, there's no sign of former EastEnders Dean Gaffney or Shaun Williamson who manned the phone shop in Extras. This one is staffed by Ashley and Jerwayne (Andrew Brooke and Javone Prince).

Emma Fryer's in it too, still wearing that dazed, sleepwalker expression that she used in BBC2's Home Time.

Tom Bennett is new boy Chris, trying to make his first sale in the cut-throat world of 24-month contracts and impress his sex addict boss (played by Martin Trenaman).

Written, directed and produced by Phil Bowker (who also produced Sharon Horgan's Pulling) I hope this one gets the go-ahead as a series too.

The cast gel together as if they've worked together for years and even manage to turn BNP leader Nick Griffin into joke fodder.

Emma Fryer on Home Time

Home Time's Emma Fryer writes... Hello. I've never written a blog before. I'm not really sure what to talk about but here goes.

Home Time could almost be seen as a companion piece to Off the Hook, showing what happens when youthful aspirations turn sour.

Emma Fryer stars as 29-year-old Gaynor, reluctantly returning to her home town of Coventry, after 12 years trying to live the big city dream in London. The school friends she abandoned are slow to welcome her back, offer sympathy or forgive what they see as a terrible betrayal.

Fryer, the series' co-writer, generously provides her co-stars with all the best lines and is content to quietly wander through proceedings in a state of bemused distress. But don't be put off by Home Time's bitter-sweet premise. It is a delight - consistently funny, frequently inspired and very moving.