Gillian Reynolds

Monty Python at 50: The Self-Abasement Tapes is made up of excised sketches from the television show, presented for the first time by Python member Michael Palin. Television now is a lot swearier and shoutier than it was 50 years ago, but I bet it still wouldn't start a Python tribute with the sketch that opened this one: a report from the annual conference of the Fat Ignorant Bastards Party of the USA, whose leader has just become president. "The cult is certainly booming," Eric Idle said in classic old-style Panorama manner.

There followed a court sketch and a school sketch, both subjects dear to Python hearts, as well as the fine country parody song I'm So Worried, exquisitely performed by Terry Jones, with worries that ranged from the Middle East to Heathrow's baggage delivery system and the state of current TV. Palin's linking device, as if he were excavating the material from sewers beneath the Edgware Road while being ironic about that road, its shops and owners, was apt and ingenious.

Radio Choice:

A new kind of comedy show by Alex Lynch, who clearly knows his subject, skits and sketches that build into a story set in the teeming world of advertising. It's focused on dim Tim (Rasmus Hardiker) and determined Miranda (Lucy Beaumont), rival interns, desperately seeking proper jobs. Their paths keep crossing. He fancies her, she's scornful and wily. Robert Glenister is the linking narrator.

Miles Jupp received Radio 4's greatest honour, a place on the panel of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, on Monday. He made his Radio 4 chairing debut three weeks ago on the current panel game It's Not What You Know (a grim trot round the circuit of comedy clichés) and is heir to the chair on The News Quiz. His breakthrough Clue moment came when playing a duck buzzer (the plastic toy that sounds like a kazoo but madder). His performance was exact in phrasing, rigorously executed. The fact that no one guessed the song he was performing ("Let It Go", from the movie Frozen) proved he understands the heart of this show. Now where do I get a duck buzzer...

Final episode of what has been an astonishingly good new comedy series. Why "astonishing"? Because its subject is serious, alcoholism. The situation is in a weekly meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, each episode following the story of why the speaker got there, complete with anger, lies and the pain of finding the truth about oneself. And yet it's funny, because life is funny and so is the road to self revelation. The cast is impressive, the acting superb and if Pete Jackson, who wrote it from his own experience, doesn't get a prize there's no justice.

Half way through its six-week run, Pete Jackson's thoughtful, recognisable, personally observed comedy arrives at Simon (John Hannah), a member of the Alcoholics Anonymous group around which this series is built. By now they are all getting to know each other but when Simon, a journalist, is asked to tell his story they are taken aback by the reason he hasn't revealed much so far. He was a war correspondent, he says, in Bosnia. Booze helped him get through it. It's a powerful story. But is he being honest with the group? Or himself? Seriously funny.

Bold, bright, original comedy by Pete Jackson with a sparkling cast. Bold? It's set in a weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Bright? It's recognisably real but not self conscious about it. Original? It's honest about its characters. Tonight we meet Fiona, a banker who despises everyone se4lse, has only come because her employer made her, says she makes more money than the rest of them put together. Sparking cast? Fiona is played by Rebecca Front, Sue Johnston plays a housewife, John Hannah a journalist and Eddie Marsan is Andy, who runs the group.

Pete Jackson's new comedy series comes from his own experience at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It's funny, wry, recognisable. Each week his characters pool experiences while harbouring reservations. Here, for instance, is Fiona (Rebecca Front), ex-banker, competitive, bit of a snob, a sceptic,. What can she have in common with these losers? Independents Lucky Giant have a stellar cast for this (John Hannah, Sue Johnston) and they shine.

John Hannah and Sue Johnson are among the star studded cast of an unusual new six-part comedy, set in Alcoholics Anonymous, based on author Pete Jackson's personal experience. At AA meetings he found, as many do, real support from the pooled experiences of very different people, all there for one reason yet all with their own personal emotional baggage. We follow the lives of five recovering alcoholics as they get to know each other , hate each other, fight, laugh, learn as they each tell their stories. We star with Fiona (played by Rebecca Front), a competitive ex-banker, a bit of a snob. Can she come to terms with AA's essential egalitarianism?

The best radio show of 2014. Miles Jupp's comedy about a food writer is, by far, radio's tastiest dish.

You can never recapture the genius of Hancock

The Missing Hancocks was a valiant effort but failed to capture Tony Hancock's original magic.