Gillian Reynolds

I Think I've Got a Problem is a gem from the comedy archive, featuring the late Bob Monkhouse as a psychiatrist and Suggs (lead singer from Madness) as Tom, his patient, who wakes up one day to find he can't stop singing. By Nick Romero and Andrew McGibbon, it's witty, original and curiously wise.

This slot was launched to make us all laugh on Sunday nights. Having rather failed in that ambition, it has now morphed into a corner to place oddities, a story here, a caper there. Here's bold comedian and adventurer Tim FitzHigham with the re-creation of a strange ducal wager from 1753, that a man could pass a written message over a distance of fifty miles in one hour. FitzHigham has to obey the 18th century limitations of the original bet on travel (no trains, planes, cars, buses, skates, etc, but maybe coaches or boats.) Can he do it?

Up the Garden Path (Radio 4 Extra, 7.00am; repeated 5.30pm) is a welcome repeat of Sue Limb's comedy, starring Imelda Staunton as Izzy . It comes from the era when BBC TV looked down on BBC radio and missed, therefore, the chance to grab it. It went instead to Granada TV, establishing both author and lead actress. Her latest, the brilliant Gloomsbury, will return to Radio 4 this year.

The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter (Radio 4 Extra, 8.30am) brings back Basil Boothroyd's quietly comic classic from the Seventies, with Ian Carmichael as the amiable crime writer who never quite finishes anything and Charlotte Mitchell as his wife, who does. P.G. Wodehouse himself was a Boothroyd fan.

Hugh Bonneville plays Dr Norman Wilfred, eagerly awaited lecturer at an annual scientific meeting on the Greek island of Skios. But someone else turns up, passing as Dr Wilfred. This charming chancer is Oliver Fox (Tom Hollander). Meanwhile, Dr Wilfred is stuck in a remote villa with Georgie (Janie Dee), who has been sweet-talked by Oliver into spending the weekend with him, and no luggage. The script is by Archie Scottney, from the novel by Michael Frayn, the cast (which also includes Stacy Keach and Joanne Whalley) is as grand as you'd expect from those independents Jarvis & Ayres.

I resolve not to listen to Radio 4's Sunday night comedy slot until I have built up a stock of goodness and loving kindness that doesn't evaporate at its first swear word. Nick Mohammed in Bits, the most recent performer, had the studio audience in fits of laughter. On radio he shouted. And shouted. I realise this is comedy of character but did it have to be so childish, loutish, lumpy, obvious, loud?

If you think of radio in colour this comedy comes in shades of sepia and charcoal with the occasional bright patch of green. It's also pretty addictive, a floaty tale of people looking for new starts, picking themselves up from failed ones, seeking change and consolation. The writer is Tony Pitts, the cast is superb (it includes Stephen Mangan and Ronnie Ancona), the narrator is Maxine Peake and this is a second series. If you're listening in bed be careful not to drop off as it will slot neatly into a dream.

Hurray! Here's the fourth series of John Finnemore's splendid comedy made magical by the brilliance of its cast. Stephanie Cole plays Carolyn Knapp-Shappey, formidable owner of a one-plane airline. Benedict Cumberbatch is the sole Captain, Roger Allam as First Officer provides a one-man masterclass in timing and Finnemore himself plays the owner's cheerfully hapless son. There's enough here to banish the New Year blues, even if your electricity bill just arrived.

Liza Tarbuck presents a look back at Doddy's 60 years in showbiz revolving around a new interview with him, including salutes from Liza's Dad, Jimmy, plus James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, drama critic Michael Billington and Roy Hudd. I wish producer Graham Pass had asked me. When I ran my late mother's stall in St John's Market, Liverpool in the Sixties, Doddy (who was on at the Empire) came in for a Christmas drink with us market ladies on half-day closing (Wednesday). Tickled? For everyone, from Ada Stubbs (who sold chickens) to Pauline Griffiths (who sold flowers) it was as good as entertaining royalty. I remember him playing Malvolio (and well, too) in Twelfth Night at the Liverpool Playhouse. I will never forget seeing him at the London Palladium, laughing so much my children told me I had mascara streaks down to my chin.

Radio 1 delves into the unknown on What If?... It Really Was the End of the World when comedian Roisin Conaty starts a new series by asking her fellow stand-ups what, if anything, they would do differently if tomorrow never came. Actually, it's something quite useful to think over but, surely, everything would depend on how much notice you got. Would there be time to see the sun rise and the moon shine? Or only enough to eat chocolate and drink Scotch?