Graham Linehan

Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Count Arthur Strong - writer and director Graham Linehan has set the bar high with some TV comedy gems. So it's fingers crossed this new sitcom, charting the ups and downs of family life in Dublin, won't trip him up. As daughter Ciara ([p[Amy Stephenson]) invites her boyfriend to the Walsh house for the first time, her meddling mam (Philippa Dunnen, channelling Mrs Brown), practical joker dad (Niall Gaffney) and oddball brother (Rory Connolly, channelling Father Dougal) offer a unique welcome. There are just three episodes, so not much time for the characters to bed in, but if the Linehan spark ignites, it will be back for a full series.

Radio Times review

What's that, you say, a sitcom about an Irish family with an overbearing matriarch? Well, forget Mrs Brown's Boys, because writer Graham Linehan and Dublin comedy troupe Diet of Worms's take on the tropes of Irish family life is far more restrained.

We're introduced to the Walshes - "eejit" Dad (Niall Gaffney), smothering Mammy (Philippa Dunne), feckless son Rory (Rory Connolly) - as they prepare to invite desperate-to-flee-the-nest daughter Ciara's (Amy Stephenson) new, unassuming boyfriend Graham into their madhouse.

It's a traditional family sitcom full of comic misunderstandings, some wonderful moments of silliness and there's an affectionate charm in the playing, with Shane Langan particularly good as Graham - he has the look of a young Linehan about him.

Who are Diet of Worms?

Say hello to the Irish comedy troupe starring in Graham Linehan's new BBC Four sitcom The Walshes - by watching their best work on YouTube.

The Walshes marks new direction for Graham Linehan

Graham Linehan's new show steers away from the daft and broad work which made his name.

The Walshes interview

An interview with Diet of Worms. "It was very polite of Graham Linehan to humour us..."

Father Ted will never come back says Graham Linehan

Co-writer of the classic comedy set in Craggy Island has said that he will never revive the show.

Graham Linehan: The Walshes is no Mrs Brown's Boys

The Father Ted creator is hoping his new sitcom The Walshes will not be compared with Brendan O'Carroll's hit - and says he was "never really a big fan" of O'Carroll's work.

In an inspired piece of scheduling, Channel 4 bins the Come Dine With Me repeats and dedicates the whole of Christmas Eve to Graham Linehan's honkingly funny sitcom. Set in a terrifyingly realistic man cave in the basement of a dysfunctional London company it is, according to those who know their ethernet cables from their elbows, almost a documentary.

Surrounded by empty boxes, unopened manuals, stickers and plastic desk toys, Moss (Richard Ayoade) and Roy (Chris O'Dowd, before he was Bridesmaids famous) skive, snigger, talk about girls and tell anyone with an ailing computer to turn it off and on again. Noel Fielding lives in the cupboard. Their female boss knows nothing of these annoying computer thingies and is preoccupied with her car crash love life.

In honour of this festive extravaganza, fans have voted for their favourite episode and Linehan has nominated his. There is also a repeat of the final one-off show from earlier this year and a documentary featuring interviews with cast and A-list fans.

Of course, every night is IT Crowd night somewhere on the Channel 4 network. Like Father Ted, it's become one of those endlessly repeated classics that feels dangerous to even dip into for fear of finding yourself still transfixed a couple of hours later.

So what is Graham Linehan's secret? No real clues from The IT Crowd Manual', the doc which, at 10pm, forms the centrepiece of this celebration. What he's done seems simple: in both Father Ted and The IT Crowd, the classic sitcom formula (a hermetically-sealed world, characters who never learn lessons) is equipped it with self-awareness and real warmth. Oh, and the perfomances are magnificent - Richard Ayoade, Chris O'Dowd, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry are all charmingly present and correct and all seem rightly proud to have been involved in such an adored show.

If you tune in an hour before the doc, you'll get another chance to catch the hour-long special that closed the series earlier this year; from 11.05pm, we'll be finding out which episodes the show's fans and creator hold dearest. A Christmas Eve treat.

The IT Crowd Night comes to Channel 4

On a yet-to-be-confirmed date, the broadcaster will air this year's IT Crowd special: "The Internet is Coming", behind-the-scenes documentary The IT Crowd Manual, the fan's favourite episode and Graham Linehan's favourite episode.