Harry Venning

Recorded before a live audience on the day of its broadcast, the quality of topical comedy show Tonightly is pretty much dependent on how inspired the writers felt when they got up that morning.

Possibly because it is such a bold venture, I have a lot of time for Tonightly. The comedy sketches lean towards the infantile rather than the satirical and are tediously dependent on profanity, but they are carried by the brash enthusiasm of their performers. Showbiz correspondent Ollie Roberts' cut and paste fake interviews may just be a repetition of the same joke, but it is a joke I always laugh at.

However, the show's greatest strengths lie in host Jason Manford and sidekick Andi Osho. Affable and unflappable, the pair exude confidence without ever coming over as smug. Something the presenters of The Eleven O'Clock Show never came close to achieving.

TV REVIEW Marc Wootton Exposed

"...Wootton's versatility is well showcased and the quality of the material is consistently funny."

What the world really doesn't need is yet another sketch show from BBC3, but I have to grudgingly admit that Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor is a lot more promising than most. The quality of material is consistently amusing, and even induces the occasional guffaw. The crime scene pastiche, featuring a UV light that shows up traces of semen, was particularly memorable.

Frank Skinner's Tough Gig dragged the comic from his comedy comfort zone and sent him off to live amongst hippies and huggers at a New Age retreat in Devon. At the end of the week, Skinner had to perform a brand new stand-up routine, based upon his experience, with his former hosts becoming his audience.

What made this programme so delightful was Skinner's positive approach to the task. A lazier, less confident comic would have taken the opportunity to ridicule a particularly soft target. Instead, Skinner was open-minded, sensitive, inquisitive, respectful and polite. He was also, I should add, very funny as well. Being embraced on a regular basis didn't hug all the humour out of him.

Any mockery was of a gentle, affectionate nature. A particularly enthusiastic participant in the tantric sex workshop set Skinner off into an uncontrollable fit of the giggles. "Who puts their arms in the air when they orgasm?" Skinner later asked his video diary. "Unless it's at gunpoint."

By the time Skinner took to the stage, he had so thoroughly ingratiated himself into the community that his "tough gig" must have been one of the easiest he's ever played.

Jam and Jerusalem is distractingly top-heavy with star turns. Appearing in Jennifer Saunders' new sitcom is clearly a prestige gig for an actor, so much so that Hywel Bennett can be recruited for the sole purpose of being killed off and getting the plot moving.

Sue Johnstone stars as grieving widow Sal, forced by bereavement and redundancy into the companionable embrace of the local Women's Institute. Cue a host of comedy cameos from people accustomed to having their own shows.

My inclination is to despise Jam and Jerusalem, like Chelsea FC, for greedily snapping up all the available talent. However, like Chelsea FC, the show is rather successful. Saunders' script is poignant and amusing - there was even a moment of comic genius featuring a false arm - the characters just the right side of eccentric and the starry cast certainly deliver the goods. My favourite performance was Rosie Cavaliero's bereavement counsellor, gently admonishing Sal for processing her feelings of grief in entirely the wrong order.

Two main gripes. First, how come Sal was completely composed and unaffected by her husband's funeral? Second, what is Dawn French doing? Everyone else in the cast has adopted a naturalistic acting style, whereas French has opted for a more panto approach in playing the village idiot.

Sketch shows need time to grow but I fear Blunder will need more time than most. The characters seem woefully underdeveloped and the comedy uncertain. One character, The Baron, seems to be entirely based upon the proposition that if you keep doing something that isn't funny for long enough, it becomes funny. Not true.

Pulling stars Sharon Horgan as Donna, a bride-to-be who gets cold feet, cancels her wedding and moves in with two single girlfriends, Karen and Louise.

Do not be put off by the set-up, which evokes dark memories of the Denise Van Outen monstrosity Babes In the Wood, nor by the feeble title and its similarity to the lame Friends rip-off Coupling. Pulling is the sharpest, freshest and boldest comedy of the year, immaculately written and beautifully performed by a uniformly excellent cast.

Like many of the best comedies, Pulling is actually a study in desperation and despair. However the writers - Horgan and Dennis Kelly - clearly have deep affection for the characters they heap misery and misfortune upon.

Jilted fiance Karl's nervous breakdown was simultaneously one of the funniest and the saddest scenes I've ever seen, almost matched by alcoholic primary school teacher Louise's tear drenched reading of Hug to an audience of five-year-olds. "They cry all the time" was Louise's response at being automatically suspended.

Pulling avoids the stock comic characters that usually populate the sitcom single scene and finds its comedy in surprising and unexpected places. Most importantly, its portrayal of relationships and the dynamics within them, is uncomfortably recognisable. It is amazing what a shot of truth can achieve in a comedy.

Radio 4 on Friday: "Current thinking in social work is that one shouldn't tell the child they're bad, one should say the act was bad." No, not a worthy documentary but the wonderful Clare in the Community. Two episodes in, it's clear that, with this adaptation of Harry Venning's Guardian cartoon about a social worker, Radio 4's found a really funny sitcom. Sally Phillips delivers Clare's PC pronouncements perfectly deadpan, making them all the more entertaining. Who'd have thought Clare would sound so cut-glass? She does, and it's now impossible to imagine her any other way. Hurrah - there are four episodes still to come.