Gillian Reynolds

The voice of the narrator, Geoffrey Whitehead, is so familiar. There he is on Radio 4 on Friday nights playing Pam Ayres's husband in Potting On, a ghastly late-night sitcom about a plant nursery.

Volume Two of Pip Bin's adventures in the merry old land of Dickens pastiche. The splendid cast make the most of highly wrought lines. Marriage, says bluff Sir Phillip (Richard Johnson), the grown up Pip dictating vivid memoirs to his son in law, should be like a boxing match, dangerous, occasionally painful and with absolutely no touching below the belt. The school he attended was St Bastard's which he later tore down and rebuilt as St Lovely's. A storm is brewing like a pot of angry tea. If such jests appeal, they abound here.

John Finnemore's new situation comedy has the benefit of a superb cast. Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole and Benedict Cumberbatch give their all to this story of a small charter airline whose single plane is flown by one blasé old know-it-all (Allam) and one fiercely competitive young thruster (Cumberbatch). The whole shebang is owned by a fearsome divorcée (Cole) who has come by the plane in a divorce settlement. Her other inheritance is a dim son (played by the author) whose meek optimism is amply reflected in the laughter from the studio audience.

Lynne Truss's answer to Inspector Clouseau is a 1950s Brighton cop who believes he has cleaned up all the crime on his patch. Little does Inspector Steine (Michael Fenton Stevens) realise that the station charlady, Mrs Groynes (Sam Spiro) is a criminal mastermind. Fortunately for the next five weeks, PC Twitten (Matt Green) is on her case and doughty Sergeant Brunswick (John Ramm) is there to clear up the loose ends, even when, as today, they festoon the Hippodrome.

Sam (Rory Kinnear) is a director of an advertising agency. His actress girlfriend Gemma (Tamsin Greig) has gone off to film a soap opera in New York. He sets off, of course, to film his next commercial there too, finds he has a possible rival (Kerry Shale) and ends up in jail, pouring out his troubles to his distinctly under-impressed cell mate. Can we be sure of a happy ending? Well, it is Christmas. This is the first radio play by Peter Souter, creative director of a real-life major ad agency, directed by comedy whizz Gordon House.

New comic ground was broken with Laurence Howarth's Safety Catch.

Old Harry's Game I regard as one of the best-written comedies around, sustained over its 12 years on the air by brilliant performances and production.

Its commentary on man's inhumanity to man, as Old Harry (more commonly known as the Devil) surveys it across the ages, is very funny indeed. It is satirical, philosophical, inventive, topical yet timeless. What's to dislike?

Could it be because last week's episode mentioned the Bible? This often upsets people. But look at the context: there's a new arrival in Hell, an academic, played by Annette Crosbie. She can't understand why she is there. Old Harry (Andy Hamilton) makes her an offer. He will investigate why if she writes a biography of him which tells the truth. He sees the truth as being favourable to him. She sees it as something arrived at by due historical process, the examination of evidence, the comparison of texts.

She asks for a Bible. Variants on biblical accounts, for instance of the Adam and Eve story, then ensue. I found them very funny. Is this to do with Christianity? I am a Christian, but still laughed my socks off.

Out to Lunch a lunchtime show in which hordes of young performers queue to prove themselves. This lasts an hour, although each act (a feminist American folk singer who thinks she's fabulous; a German agony uncle; some audience participation; a footballer skit) gets only a few minutes. The audience's whooping declined perceptibly as the show progressed.

The studio audience for Safety Catch adds a level of intended unease. This is a sitcom about an arms trader.

He's called Simon, there's much about him that's likeable, he's only doing this to pay the bills for six months or so, then he's going back to his first love, electronic music (a crime almost as heinous to some ears as selling machine-guns to the Gambia).

It is by Laurence Howarth and is clearly and deeply ironic, challenging attitudes, hypocrisies and the little lies of everyday life. He's done it as a sitcom, I presume, to disguise its anger. The audience laughs, although sometimes a sudden shocked silence shows Howarth is reaching the people in the hall.

Tonic of the week was Westminster Side Story, the first in a new run of 15-Minute Musicals. The pastiche of West Side Story was inspired, and the political jokes were convincing as two gangs, Gordon's Goodies and the Hugger Hoodies, battled to dominate the centre ground.

Written by Dave Cohen, David Quantick and Richie Webb, performed by Webb, David Lamb and Mel Hudson, it was just the thing to blow away gathering clouds of conference-season cant.