Greg Davies (I)

Penultimate episode of Greg Davies's by-the-numbers debut comedy, in which he plays newly single, perennially chaotic drama teacher Dan. This week, he gets help from strait-laced buddy Brian while preparing for an unexpected date, and his dad offers him a scary insight into his own former love life. Despite a brilliant turn from Rik Mayall as Dan's father, the series has relied thus far on cheap, un-PC gags and surreal moments that don't quite reach the pandemonium of Davies's last project, Cuckoo.

You may think you're not the sort of person who would laugh at a sitcom where there's a recurring joke about a character having a massive bum. Man Down will relieve you of that delusion. This week Dan (Greg Davies) gets to meet his moustachioed friend Brian's running guru, Dominic (guest star Ramon Tikaram). Dominic is very intense and masterful but also the owner of a vastly protruding backside, something Dan simply cannot ignore. Comedy doesn't get much more basic than big-bum jokes but Man Down adds such genuinely crazed oddness to the storyline, it becomes very funny.

Only Graham Norton could ever come up with such an eclectic range of guests - global megastar Lady Gaga, actor Jude Law, comedian Greg Davies and EastEnders' Dot Branning (or rather the actress who plays her, June Brown). Who will flirt with whom, we wonder?

Lady Gaga was on the show back in 2011, dressed in an extraordinary Bride of Frankenstein-type outfit. She was last spotted in a fur mask with a gold beak on a tour to promote her new album. Tabloid favourite Law talks about his new gangster film Dom Hemingway, Davies's current sitcom Man Down (9.30pm C4) is winning him laughs and acclaim, while Brown discusses her autobiography.

Is Man Down's Brian the coolest character on TV?

The latest episode of Greg Davies's Channel 4 comedy featured an impassioned speech that puts actor Mike Wozniak up there with the likes of Jack Nicholson.

Greg Davies's madcap sitcom scales new heights of brilliance as Dan (Davies) joins Brian's Running Club and falls under the spell of the running coach Dominic (a hilarious turn by Ramon Tikaram). A mystical guru with an unfeasibly large posterior (or "a big magic arse" as Dan puts it), Dominic takes Dan under his wing to dispense life advice, much to Brian's irritation. Elsewhere, the demented Jo finds herself homeless, and ends up camping on the side of the road, where she goes on a "modern forage".

Man Down is definitely an acquired taste, but then so was The Young Ones, and while this won't have the same cultural impact, it is packed with similarly irreverent laughs.

Look out for the special makeover tent tonight as Dan's friend Jo sets off on yet another hare-brained career.

If Jo represents the mad end of the spectrum, Dan, who's somewhere in the middle, would really like to be more like his other friend Brian, a super-straight accountant who seems doomed to spend all his spare time driving Dan around and generally coming to his rescue.

This week Dan is trying to prove to his ex-girlfriend Naomi that he's trustworthy enough to attend his small niece's birthday party - an idea which his lovely twinkly mother (Gwyneth Powell, who was Mrs McCluskey in Grange Hill) finds utterly hilarious.

She may well be right.

But amidst all the juvenile slapstick, Greg Davies has somehow created a bunch of characters we're becoming incredibly fond of - no mean feat.

However ridiculous it gets, Greg Davies's sitcom keeps a foothold in reality. I love the way Dan's mother laughs to herself at the very idea they might let Dan (Davies's blundering clot of a hero) come anywhere near his niece's birthday party. "Oh no dear, we want it to be a safe party!" she chuckles, much to his chagrin. Naturally, when Dan sets out to prove his trustworthiness, it backfires beautifully. Look out for good work from Dan's friends this week, too: off-with-the-fairies Jo and brilliantly square Brian. The scene where Brian sponges his car to the strains of 80s slowdance classic Move Closer is a bonus.

Audio: Being older helped Greg Davies stay in comedy

Greg Davies has claimed that starting in entertainment late helped him to stay in the business.

Teacher man Dan (Greg Davies) may be down on the romantic front but he's not yet out for the count.

As the sitcom pratfalls continue, Dan fixates on winning back his ex - by collecting proof that she was wrong to dump him.

Meanwhile, the world around him continues to make as little sense as he does: an invitation from his dad (Rik Mayall) to play a game of swingball blasts open a whole new ball of confusion.