Gillian Reynolds

Father Figure (Radio 2, 10.00pm) is a new four-part family situation comedy, written by and starring Irish comedian Jason Byrne. He plays Tom Whyte (a version of himself) with Lucy Montgomery as his wife and a supporting cast of such stars as Pauline McLynn and Dermot Crowley, and others who've become headliners since the pilot of this show went out three years ago.

Here's a good comedy to listen to as you peel those hard neeps for your Burns Night supper. It's about young English lawyer Nicola (Sophie Thompson) whose work takes her to a Burns Night dinner in London, a corporate one. The water of life (aka whisky) flows and she's a bit put out by the general goings on. But then, as the evening continues, she starts to comprehend why the poetry of Robert Burns spoke to many a woman in its time, and still reaches hearts today. Nimbly dramatised by Liz Lochhead from a story by Helen Simpson.

Has Radio 2 missed the style train with its line-up today? Here's a celebrity-based panel show in which comedians and commentators vie to come up with gossipy quips about showbiz personalities.

Somehow all of those ingredients sound a bit past their sell-by date these days. After a decade of chitterchat by so-called entertainers about nonentities, not to mention public enquiries into the dodgy provenance of some of the gossip in the past, it all feels a bit stale. But, who knows?

Maybe Claudia Winkleman, hosting, can raise a little glitter from Andrew Maxwell, Katy Brand and Russell Watson.

Will is William Andrews and Greg is Greg McHugh and here's their new late-night comedy show, exploring the surreal and absurd through characters and sketches. Some sketches are recorded in front of an audience in Glasgow, some are done just for the studio microphone but, as the aim is to get us to recognise Will and Greg as the centre of their own offbeat universe where the familiar suddenly becomes bizarre, we ought to feel at home wherever they lead us. Gavin Mitchell and Kirsten McLean are the supporting cast. First episode of three.

Hugh Bonneville, best known these days as the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, has an amazing range as an actor, spanning Shakespeare, Jonson, Alan Bennett and John le Carré. Here he plays Robert Purcell QC, a perfect example of the British Establishment, mannerly and thorough, in a new comedy by Jon Canter. Purcell's problem is that while his legal thinking is flawless it doesn't work when he tries to apply its logic to his private life. In this first episode, he sails through all his exams but finding a girlfriend proves to be much more of a test.

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders did so well with their Christmas and New Year specials last year that they've been invited back. Listeners liked the way they talk to each other (occasionally tartly) as if they were in on the conversation. The guests are good too although you never quite know who's going to turn up. It could be Michael Palin, it might be Tracy Emin or even Clare Balding and her mum. Laughter is guaranteed. Ditto music.

Dave Podmore (like the more famous Ed Reardon, the creation of Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds), is England's louchest, laziest former cricketer. But his luck at picking up juicy jobs has run out. He's down to walk-ons in Aladdin at the Meatmarket Theatre, Droitwich. So he has a brilliant wheeze to get back into the headlines, involving old escapades with Miss Scrumpy Jack. Is Dave smart enough to juggle the law?

In the real shed in the late John Peel's garden lived the vast record collection that he'd built up over the years on Radio 1. He'd mention it on air, take favoured groups (like Pulp) round it, occasionally run a competition that featured it. The winner of one of those competitions in 2002 was John Osborne, who won a box of records that took him eight years to listen to. It was such a rich and strange experience that he made a stage show out of it, took it to the Edinburgh Fringe and now here it is on Radio 4, an ode to radio and the joys of listening.

Last Thursday I took refuge in Radio 4's Afternoon Theatre, The Hamster, by Anders Lustgarten, a comic fable, about a man who buys his wife a special hamster. They have chosen to have no children and live in an upmarket gated development where the rules forbid all pets. This one grows bigger than a very large dog and becomes an object of veneration to world wide hamster fans who flock to visit it, photograph it, pay good money for half an hour alone with it. Busy as I was making a Dundee cake according to the free Daily Telegraph book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (excellent recipe, but allow rather more baking time than he does) I grew uneasily suspicious that this hamster thing was some kind of peculiar kinky metaphor. As I didn't like the characters, the squeaky hamster or the many mentions of its giant droppings, I switched off.

We're back in Katherine Jakeways's fictional small market town, Waddenbrook. Sheila Hancock acts as all-seeing narrator of the everyday lives of its inhabitants. Jan is returning from a big trip abroad, and agonising. Esther and Jonathan are still trying for a baby. Jan is longing for Jonathan. At the supermarket there's a special on choc ices and the manager is still sharing his longing for his ex-wife over the Tannoy. Marvellous cast (Mackenzie Crook and Penelope Wilton among them) juggle exactly with such elements of homely surreality.