Emma Pierson

Katherine Parkinson isn't, for a change, the one chewing the most scenery in the penultimate episode of the family comedy. That's because Emma Pierson (as Jenny) spends much of the show wailing at full tilt, as one disaster follows another on what seems to be an ill-starred day to be marrying Tim. As ever, it's hard to see what purpose the 1970s setting is meant to serve, apart from to justify using some good if incoherently programmed music on the soundtrack, and as an excuse for using some tired sitcom standbys.

The Kennedys had the tough job of following Have I Got News For You on BBC One. The Kennedys is based on the memoirs of journalist Emma Kennedy and just like Danny Baker's Cradle to Grave takes us back to the 1970s. Unlike Cradle to Grave, the family in The Kennedys isn't constantly shouting at each other and instead Emma's parents Brenda and Tony (Katherine Parkinson and Dan Skinner) are relatively demure when compared to their friends and neighbours. The opening episode sees Brenda live her aspirations of hosting the first dinner party in their small neighbourhood of Jessop Square. Brenda then instructs Tony to make a lasange, something that baffles him due to the fact that he has to use pasta that doesn't come from a tin. Tony asks friend Tim (Harry Peacock) to try and help him track down some pasta only to discover that his mate is conducting an affair. At the same time Brenda learns that Tim's girlfriend Jenny (Emma Pierson) is pregnant and hasn't told her other half yet. This perfectly sets up the comedy goldmine that is the awkward dinner party which includes Tim spending the entire meal bare-chested and his lover walking in on the meal to threaten physical violence against most of the guests. I was surprised by how much I liked The Kennedys and I think it had a certain sense of innocence that you don't see in sitcoms any more. That may have something to do with the fact that the comedy has a pre-teen protagonist in Lucy Hutchinson's Emma, with the young actress proving to be a comic revelation. Meanwhile the reliable Skinner and Parkinson were an absolute delight to watch as the social climbing parents with the former pulling off a great Welsh accent. Whether or not The Kennedys can keep the momentum of this first episode going remains to be seen but on first impressions this is a refreshingly likeable old-fashioned sitcom.

A dastardly duo investigate crimes on a sunny Spanish island in this hilarious series of comedy capers.

Bradley Walsh and Kayvan Novak (Fonejacker), head up the cast as expat journalists trying to play detective and stay out of trouble at the same time.

The series also boasts a stellar line-up of cameo appearances, including Paul Kaye, Tracy Ann Oberman, Jack Dee and Kara Tointon.

Law & Order: UK actor Bradley said he thought the sitcom would appeal to families, so it's a shame schedulers have put it on so late. But it's worth recording.

The action starts when undercover reporter - and master of disguise - Woody (Novak) is forced to flee Britain after being framed by his corrupt boss.

He goes on the run to find Brutus (Walsh), his former mentor at the newspaper and the one man he can trust. Brutus, now living a quiet life running a bar (called El Baro) in sunny Spain, is less than thrilled to see Woody.

But in the end they join forces to investigate local crimes.

It's a bit like Magnum, P.I. meeting the cast of Benidorm.

"I wanted the Magnum look, but without the enormous moustache," said Kayvan, about the show.

"But it's nice to be in something without wearing a balaclava or prosthetic mask."

And Bradley said: "I'd spent so many years being a downtrodden detective, standing on Hammersmith Bridge at six o'clock in the morning, getting rained on.

"So I thought, why not go and do that in the sun!"

In this opener, Melody (Emma Pierson) asks Brutus to help her find her husband's millions. But there's a catch. The only living thing who knows where the money is hidden is Teflon, his talking parrot - and the parrot has been kidnapped.

Can they track down the bird-napper before it's too late?

Confession time. I didn't review Dead Boss (BBC3) when it began last week. Here's why. I'm a big fan of Sharon Horgan, who co-wrote and stars in it. Pulling, which she also co-wrote and starred in, was fabulous, one of my comedy highlights of recent times. But this was pretty lame - and tame - in comparison. I wanted to like it, but couldn't.

So I ignored it. Perhaps it needed time to bed in (pah!), and would get into its stride in week two. I told myself I was giving it a chance by deferring judgment, when of course I was really simply bottling it.

This episode is maybe a bit better. There are some nice lines: "Mia casa, tua casa, is that German, erm, mein Kampf is your Kampf?" Horgan's character Helen tells her new prison exchange cellmate Gertie (played by Anna Crilly, whose German accent is pretty much the same as the indeterminate eastern European one she has as Magda in Lead Balloon). And some nice performances (Emma Pierson's stands out, as the dead boss's widow). But, let's be honest, it's not good - neither wonderfully anarchic nor wonderfully rude, as Pulling was. It lacks that conviction and confidence. It's old-fashioned, unadventurous and, more serious still, unfunny.

Oh God, my confession gets worse, it was a bigger bottle even than that. Sharon Horgan follows me on Twitter. I was like an excited little boy when she did, given that I don't just follow her, I practically stalk her. Now I'm like someone who's pestered her forever for a kiss, she's finally relented (out of pity), and I'm running around saying her breath stinks. Let's face it though; it does. Not literally, but her sitcom does.

I say she follows me, I'm sure she doesn't any more. Oh well. Nothing - and no one - comes between me and critical integrity ... Yeah, shush now.

The funniest new show of the week, possibly the year, was BBC3's prison-based comedy Dead Boss starring Sharon Horgan.

It's easily the most amusing thing I've seen behind bars since Jeffrey Archer. It has a sharp script, a great cast and some beautifully worked set pieces. Plus, for those who care about the finer details, Emma Pierson from Hotel Babylon guest stars in it wearing one of those dresses she likes to wear.

Watching this new series of fivestar shenanigans is like drowning, slowly, in a vat of Asti Spumante. It's delicious and cool and frothy, but a little voice at the back of your head keeps telling you that it can't really be doing you any good. And all those bubbles do get up your nose after a while.

Tonight Honor Blackman has a ball camping it up outrageously as a batty movie siren while Tony Robinson takes a break from peering into muddy holes on C4 to play a man who once stole a gangster's wife. And as Anna goes into labour tonight, you might want to compare her childbirth scene with that of Maria's over on Corrie. Anna sailed through her pregnancy in pencil skirts and killer heels and the birth is no less glamourous.

But the series might be about to lose a little of its glitz as actress Emma Pierson and her baby check out tonight - once the identity of the baby's father has finally been revealed. You will be relieved to hear that it's not guest star Michael Winner.

Hotel Babylon, BBC1's celebrity-sprinkled, glorified soap, is back for a third series. So far, this stilted comedy drama about preposterous shenanigans in a five-star hotel has proved remarkably popular. The programme may be in for a struggle, though, now that it has lost its best star, the sexy Tamzin Outhwaite. Max Beesley, her erstwhile henchman, now promoted to hotel manager, has never exactly oozed leading-man charisma, and he failed to electrify in last night's opener.

Still, there was something sneakily enjoyable about the episode, which pivoted on the unlikely possibility that vain receptionist Anna (Emma Pierson) cared about fair-trade garment manufacture. Although it was the incidental trivia rather than the plotline that provided the amusement. "Sorry I'm late, I had an early morning dental appointment," said head of housekeeping Jackie (Natalie Mendoza), as she tumbled in, dishevelled, to a meeting. "Oh you poor thing, did you get drilled?" fired back Anna.

Perhaps Hotel Babylon's secret is that it offers a parallel universe where we can laugh at people who behave with a shamelessness we secretly rather envy.