Gillian Reynolds

Katherine Parkinson (Mrs Pooter in Radio 4's new Classic Serial, wonderful in Channel 4's The IT Crowd) and Julian Rhind-Tutt (total star, even as the guest on Radio 3's Essential Classics) head a brilliant cast (Jan Francis, Peter Davison, Dave Lamb, Don Gilet) in this new comedy by Eddie Robson. It's about an English village, invaded for study purposes by aliens, the Geonin, who throw a heat cordon around it to stop anyone coming in or getting out. They'll soon learn about the Earthling inborn tendency to resistance.

Radio 2 is saluting the best of British talent in their approach to the forthcoming London Olympics. Tonight's fanfare is for the great comedy writing duo of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, from Hancock's Half Hour to Steptoe and Son, their work on radio and TV broke away from the accepted broadcast comedy conventions (sketches, jokes, musical interludes) by developing characters and situations. Here's how they met, who they influenced, with tributes galore not least from presenter Stephen Merchant.

More neatly observed, finely tuned comedies by Marcella Evaristi about modern dilemmas of shared parenting, starring Sarah Alexander as Mimi, the thrice-married mum, with Mark Bonnar as Dad (replacing David Tennant, who played him in the first series last year). Their two children are Tom (he'll be 11 now) and teenage Lucy, played by Finlay Christie and Phoebe Abbott (and very well too) about to get her mother's full attention in this first of six episodes. Marilyn Imrie directs, for independents Absolutely Productions. And there's more good news, in that there are six episodes, rather than the four of the first series. Make the most of them because big budget cuts seem to be digging into the schedule in ways that limit new programmes. Any day now across the whole schedule radio is repeating many more programmes than it once did. Sometimes that's not a bad thing, one person's repeat being another person's first hearing. But as Radio 4, in particular, produces more new programmes across a greater variety of genres than other networks, it is bound to restrict innovation and is already affecting how digital Radio 4 can use more recent programmes.

Robert Webb, actor and comedian, opens the diary he kept when he was 17 for the benefit of host (and comedian) Rufus Hound and an enthralled audience. His entries include one about going to a party and kissing a girl he didn't really fancy. I always listen to this programme, now in its fourth series. But I often wonder whether a real conversation with the diaries' authors (who have included Meera Syal, Sheila Hancock, Michael Winner and Julian Clary) would produce something more satisfying than some wisecracks from Hound and lots of easy audience laughs.

Bill Nighy stars as Oliver, jobless, nervy, utterly deracinated, and in love with Jo (Amelia Bullmore). He is scared of telling her, so he climbs a tree in a garden that he knows she will visit. Why? Because he thinks that if he's up a tree he won't be able to back out of confessing his passion. AL Kennedy's summery romance is a bit of a departure for this writer, but wry comedy is becoming her forte (witness her recent reflections on adventures in America on Radio 4). Does the brilliant casting mean this could presage a series?

Sparky late-night comedy from Katy Wix about Ben (Reece Shearsmith), a scientist on a sub-Antarctic island doing a study of the albatross. There's another scientist on the island with him but they don't communicate, so Ben takes to keeping an audio diary. As you can imagine, there isn't much scope for social adventure on this island and Ben is not what you'd call adventurous anyway. But, in a Pooterish way, he is quite funny, even when all he's doing is losing his watch. Also starring Julian Rhind-Tutt and Alison Steadman, produced by clever Tilusha Ghelani.

First of four comedies starring June Whitfield. In this one, "Spray the Grass Green" by Andy Merriam and Peter Morfoot and set in 1939, she plays fading Hollywood star Lana Garfield who learns her studio boss is about to rip up her contract. Enter George (David Haig), a ghost writer. Revenge is imminent. Not that Miss Whitfield herself would ever have to think of such a thing. From Eth in "The Glums" on Take It from Here in 1953 to Miss Marple on Radio 4, from Radio 2's News Huddlines to BBC TV's Ab Fab, she's queen of the airwaves. Long may she reign.

Simon Day's offbeat situation comedy, written by and starring him. It all happens in a small theatre, the Mallard. It's changed since Tommy Cockles (Day) last played there. There's a new owner, he's Nigerian and has big plans for the place. There's a new sound man and he's not the easy-going, semi-anarchist of old. This one used to be a policeman and he's strict about what can and cannot be done. And where's Catherine, the receptionist, who used to make the wheels go round? She's off to more exotic climes, to find herself, leaving Tommy bewildered.

Writer Jeremy Front (he does the marvellous Charles Paris mysteries among many other plays) and his sister, the actress Rebecca Front (On the Hour, The Thick of It, Lewis), teamed up to invent this series of fictional biographies of imaginary females. She plays all five of this week's amazing ladies. He plays the interviewer, spending a day with each to get to know them. They begin with stage and TV psychic Nicky Markham. You may think, as you listen, that you have encountered Nicky (or someone quite uncannily like her) before.

New comedy, by and starring David Schneider, set in that crossroad of British experience, the registry office. Schneider plays Malcolm, a Chief Registrar of the old school, stickler for rules and regulations, unmarried. Sent in to work beside him and bring the office up to date is Lorna (Sarah Hadland). She's a divorcee with bright ideas, like how to make weddings make profits. How far she'll get with the workforce, spiky Mary (Sally Bretton), geeky Luke (Russell Tovey) and dizzy but sympathetic Anita (Sandy McDade) is anyone's guess.