Ian Wolf

This is Sarah Millican's first steps into a television series of her own, after appearing on nearly every panel show under the sun!

There have been complaints from some quarters that Sarah Millican's possibly the most overexposed comedian currently around. I personally don't think that's the case. Yes, she appears on a lot of panel shows, but she always the guest - she doesn't host any or appear as a team captain, unlike David Mitchell for example.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme is part stand-up, part talk show. Each show covers two different television genres, this week being "animals" and "dating", with the guidance of a guest expert (Chris Packham and Tracey Cox respectively). It has to be said that she seemed to look a bit uncomfortable dealing with this format and perhaps the given material, but I don't doubt she'll soon cope with it as the series goes along.

Millican is certainly funny and the show is very good, but it does have one or two problems, namely with video cameras. There's annoying gimmickry with the "Millicam" in which a video camera is sent into the studio audience and certain people answer Millican's questions. The main problem, though, is that they also filmed the audience members holding the Millicam, so the Millicam instantly becomes redundant...

Then there was Sarah's guest interview with her own father Phillip, during which she wore a silly headcam, which gets one laugh at the beginning but then of course just becomes rather tiresome.

However, other than those minor issues, I'd recommend you giving The Sarah Millican Television Programme a viewing.

Following on from a successful pilot in late 2010, BBC Four's commissioned a full series of this comedy drama loosely based on the novels by Douglas Adams, and starring Stephen Mangan as the holistic detective.

The first episode in the series, which sees Dirk deal with a murder that has links to the Pentagon, contains some funny situations created by Howard Overman, the man behind the adaptation. Such things include Dirk breaking into a house of the murder victim by smashing a glass door being witnessed by those inside. Then there's Dirk surveillance operation which goes completely wrong thanks to his partner/assistant MacDuff's (Darren Boyd) new chair.

However, personally speaking I'm one of those people who would have been happier with the original stories being adapted for the screen rather than having new ones developed. While it does contain some elements from the original books, such as Zen navigation (instead of using a map to go where you want to go, you follow someone who looks like they know where they go, often leading you to somewhere you need to be), it would be nice to see Adams's original tales on screen.

Still, if you too are annoyed by the lack of faithfulness in this adaptation, there are always the more faithful Radio 4 stories starring Harry Enfield, which does follow Adam's work much more closely (Electric Monks and Norse Gods included).

The first episode of Watson & Oliver was, on the whole, pretty poor. It began well - I was especially fond of the opening sketch in which Lorna Watson draws eyebrows on her face in response to Ingrid Oliver's feelings, which became more and more ridiculous as the conversation went on. The duo are good physical performers.

However, I didn't enjoy the second half of the episode nearly as much.

The problem seems to be the writing. Some of the sketches seemed lack any purpose, like the friendly conversation between a prisoner and a warden. It totally stumped me, and I think judging by the audience reaction the studio didn't realise understand it either (mostly light tittering and nothing more).

Concerning the writing, I think that the most interesting aspect of Watson & Oliver is that while Watson and Oliver are the main writers, there is a larger bunch of writers providing "additional material". In the opening episode, for example, Kevin Cecil, Ali Crockatt, David Scott, Alex Lowe and Robert Mills all contributed. In other words, apart from the two stars, all the writers are men writing for female roles. Perhaps if Watson and Oliver wrote all their material there'd be a fluidity to the show and it might, well, be a bit better.

Still, it's probably best to see what comes up in future episodes...

Pramface, a sitcom about a 16-year-old boy who accidentally gets a girl pregnant, is one of a series of new comedies recently commissioned by BBC Three, having axed most of their old shows. All I can say is that I hope the rest of the new output is better than this.

To give you an idea of where I stand on it, I laughed once. The laugh itself came from a somewhat old-hack gag about a boy "pleasuring himself" and "reaching climax" as his mother enters the room.

Nothing original to it, apart from the fact he was listening to a sex audio tape of his own devising, which was set to play the theme from Top Gear at the critical moment. Now, when I wrote about comedy in Top Gear last week, that's not quiet how I envisioned it. Still it's better than seeing one of those three presenters doing that act (and I apologise for putting that rather disturbing image into your head right now).

There were several problems with Pramface for me. I didn't like most of the characters; there was too much incidental music for my liking; and in terms of the gross-out comedy it appears to be going for I've seen much funnier examples elsewhere. Give me Robert Webb in Peep Show eating a half-cooked dog leg any day of the week.

Channel 4 must have faith in 10 O'Clock Live, considering that it got quite a bashing during the first series.

It suffered from many problems; chief amongst them was the hype surrounding the first series with people comparing it to The Daily Show, which was suicidal given how hugely successful and respected The Daily Show is.

However, the second series has come around with almost no fan fair at all. The regulars are still the same. Jimmy Carr's still filling the role of gag-man newsreader; Charlie Brooker's still filling the role of grumpy man who looks at the TV; David Mitchell's still filling the role of grumpy man who interviews people; and Lauren Laverne's still filling the role of the sensible token northern woman that leaves people asking, "Couldn't they find a female comedian instead?"

While there were some laughs, much of the show was still below par. One routine, which featured Jimmy Carr as Vladimir Putin wearing a fake padded muscle suit and wrestling a man in a bear costume, just didn't grab me at all.

It's nice to see that the channel still has some faith in the programme, but I just don't think it is going to work.

Gigglebox weekly #36 - Harry Hill's TV Burp

This week I've been reviewing what I'm hoping will be the final series of Harry Hill's TV Burp. When I say "hoping will be the final series", what I really mean is that I hope if Harry Hill leaves this'll be the final series of TV Burp.

Gigglebox weekly #35

This week Ian Wolf talks about a bottle being thrown at Russell Brand and an intriguing picture of Pele.

Noel Fielding's new sketch show has been publicised widely - there's not a bus shelter in my hometown of Stockton without a poster of Fielding in some bizarre costume.

When you watch the show it gets even weirder. Fielding is living in a treehouse in a jungle, with an aardvark butler (played by Noel's brother Michael) and with Andy Warhol (Tom Meeten) as his cleaner. Then there are other characters played by Fielding, including a New York cop with a talking knife wound, a lion in a zoo going slowly insane, and a games teacher with shell shock - who is also a chocolate finger.

Normally I like it when comedians push at the extremes, whether it's in terms of language, situation or realism/surrealism. However, Luxury Comedy appears to be one of those rather rare cases of going too far instead of not far enough. His earlier work, The Mighty Boosh, was itself bizarre and wonderfully funny, but also had the added advantage of Julian Barratt keeping things in control and from going too off the wall. This show is just bizarre, though - all surrealism and seemingly without comedy.

For me the best bit was seemingly the sanest, which was Fielding's drawing of Pele holding a china cup and kicking what was either a ball or the saucer for the cup. I think it worked because at least you can connect the show with something that exists in the real world. The same is true with the 'Warhol' character.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy is too far disconnected from anything recognisable to make it funny. A good piece of art perhaps - totally maverick - but that's about it.

Once again we come across another example of a great comedy programme that is only on in Scotland (thank goodness for the iPlayer). Late 'n' Live Guide to Comedy is a six-part documentary series about the Late 'n' Live comedy show at the Gilded Balloon venue during the Edinburgh Fringe.

For those who don't know, this is a series of late night stand-up shows featuring several comedians performing on stage in front of an audience who are usually loud, drunk and willing to heckle at any given opportunity. To quote Jenny Eclair, the greatest error made when you're try to avoid heckling at Late 'n' Live is when "you make the mistake of breathing," and thus leave a short enough pause for someone to shout: "Fuck off!"

Other than learning about the history of the late-night show, the best thing about this documentary is watching some early stand-up performances by famous names. These include Johnny Vegas encouraging his audience to throw coins at him while he sang and Russell Brand in 2001, who at the time had only performed between 20-30 gigs. His stand-up involved deliberately angering and provoking the audience - what a surprise. But this lead to a storm of abuse and Brand getting an encore.

During the encore someone tried to throw a glass bottle at him. It missed Brand, but a shard landed in the leg of the next act, Fiona O'Loughlin, meaning she was bleeding when she went on stage...

Gigglebox weekly #33 - Milton Jones's House of Rooms

Having seen this pilot, I can sum up my reaction to it with one word: brilliant. This is possibly the best TV pilot I've seen, so much so I was laughing all the way through.