Gillian Reynolds

A determined attempt to make science jolly by Helen Keen, with Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane doing the funny voices. Keen focuses first on three rocket science pioneers, one Russian, one American and one Transylvanian-German, all of whom lived in the 19th century and each ridiculed by their contemporaries. Give it a try. It sounds a bit like one of those hugely popular Late Nights at the Science Museum but it's only 15 minutes out of your life and at least it proves that rocket science is of more use than in a stupidly dismissive cliché.

Comedy by clever Nick Warburton, starring James Fleet as Edward. He's timid, bashful. Passing local allotments one day he speaks to attractive Amanda (Joanna Monro) and decides there and then that he must get an allotment too. But first he has to be interviewed by fierce site manager Bernie (Jonathan Coy).

A way through the resulting confrontational suddenly opens when Bernie learns Edward's father was a noted local horticulturist he's admired all his life. Whew! Yes there's another surprise for all in store. And there will be three more in the series.

I am glad to welcome back this reliably inventive humorous review of the week. And relieved. Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt (not to mention their supportings artists) are in such demand on TV these days that it's a wonder they have the time to do little old radio any more (let alone work for the tiny fees). But they do and let's be glad of it. We all deserve a laugh or two at the end of yet another disaster-laden, gloomy, wintry week. And here's the show where the skits and songs can be counted on to prove it's not just you and I who think the world's gone mad.

Last in this series. Thank goodness. Next week Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis return with The Now Show, which may have its off moments but still hits more marks than it misses and, to me, seems to leave its older stablemate sounding tired and desperate. Marks of this are the ever deepening shades of blue written into chairman Sandy Toksvig's script, which induces the other comedians on the show to venture ever further into crudeness. It's not that I'm shocked. It's just that it's all so predictable. Maybe it's time to give it a rest. Or bring in a new writer.

Brian Gulliver's Travels is a new comedy, written by Bill Dare, produced by Steven Canny and starring Neil Pearson. He plays a maker of travel programmes, in hospital, claiming to have had strange encounters in an unknown continent. He's been away six years. His estranged daughter Rachel (Mariah Gale) visits him, hears his story, the first of (you've guessed it) six adventures. He was flying over the Amazon when his plane crashed, he landed in water (to his surprise, it was warm) and was picked up by a ship.

This ship was crewed by friendly people without any hair, speaking English. He is taken to the ship's doctor, given a welcome pill, a scan. Soon he discovers he is meeting people who live in a Medocracy. Not only do doctors rule, their deity is medical too. In this country, Gelbetia, people are not unfit. They have symptoms which are treated. The captain of the ship suffers from Incompetence Syndrome. Laziness is Effort Deficit Syndrome. Diet is prescribed, exercise is compulsory. Naturally there is a rebel movement. They raid gyms, destroy the running machines, burn leotards, throw the lentil smoothies down the drain, eat chocolate gateau. Brian takes up with them. When they're caught and jailed the worst punishment is six months' hard yoga. At the very end, Rachel is given reason to believe that Brian may not, after all, just be fabricating again. She says she'll be back for next week's adventure, in Harbentha. So will I. A nimbler reflection on achieving a national state of health is hard to imagine.

Following Ed Reardon into this programme slot is a big challenge. But Brian Gulliver (played by Neil Pearson) is another marvellous character. The creation of Bill Dare, Brian is a man who finds himself in hospital, telling his daughter about the strange adventures that have landed him there. He's been to a land, Gelbetia, where no one has "bad" behaviour because everything can be diagnosed as a symptom or syndrome by the ruling medical industry. It's allusive, relevant, full of surprises, satirical in the true spirit of Swift. And very funny.

Angus Deayton returns to the bosom of the BBC, taking the chairman's seat for this do-it-yourself panel game in which four comedians each make up rounds of quiz questions. Sara Pascoe, for instance, invents Come to Romford. The others all compete to compose advertisements for even naffer places, like London, Woking or Loftus, an Australian suburb with a tram museum and a very dodgy parking area. Stick around for the last round, where you have to guess if short sayings are headlines or cryptic crossword clues. It's quite hard but curiously attractive.

This is a comedy about adultery by Stephen Keyworth. Nitin Ganatra (real-life actor on EastEnders) plays himself, trying to show his agent he has a wider range than the "nice guy" roles he always plays and, to prove it, declares he's having an affair with the wife of an EastEnders crew member. The thing is, she's married to the continuity man on the show, the person who always has to know where things are and make sure nothing is moved to the wrong place. Bad news for lovers, perhaps, who may leave something under a bed that wasn't there before.

Tom Wrigglesworth says he's an "engineer of mirth" as he pretends to be writing to the government to ask "what's happening to traffic wardens?" Anyone not related to Mr Wrigglesworth or not listening to his act in a pub after a few jars will be tempted to ask "what's happening to BBC mirth engineering?" Someone from Comedy (a whole department of its own) will probably now write me a patronising note about keeping up with the new generation of performers. Don't bother. De-gunking the washing machine will be more fun than this.

You may have heard this when it first went out in the 6.30pm comedy zone but if you are generally averse to what's offered in those slots and thus missed it, grab it now. Mark Evans writes one of the wittiest, most ingenious scripts on the air, a Dickensian pastiche with a slight Rocky Horror Show echo. Director Gareth Edwards has cast it beautifully and the actors (Richard Johnson and Anthony Head among them) give it their considerable all.