Jack Dee

A brilliantly funny sitcom starring deadpan comic Jack Dee as disillusioned stand-up comedian Rick Spleen.

Another dollop of sourpuss comedy, and this week, a revelation: Rick Spleen isn't Rick Spleen at all, it turns out. His real name is Rick Shaw, a pun that caused no end of amusement in his school days and which comedy partner Marty continues to enjoy, at Rick's expense, during their fractious writing sessions. It's a detail that may prove crucial, too, if Rick's hopes of appearing on a family tree series called Where Do You Come From? materialise. The pre-title sequence where Rick meets the show's producer Calvin is one of several lovely scenes, the best of which involves a priceless misunderstanding by Magda the home help, who's moved in with Rick's family. Then there's Michael, Rick's super-tense restaurateur friend. Michael has not taken well the news that his father is gay. Look out for a brilliant visual gag in the scene where Rick and Marty visit Michael's place to check he's OK: Curb Your Enthusiasm, this sitcom's spiritual parent, would be proud.

Jack Dee may be on of the writers, but it's clear he knows that successful sitcoms need a good ensemble cast. Which perhaps explains why Magda, his sullen Eastern European help, and Michael, the ultra-neurotic cafe owner, get all the best lines.

Although it's easy to understand why Jack Dee's surly sitcom has survived to a third series, you need an electron microscope to find the humour in it these days.

And now that Rick's daughter Sam (played by Antonia Campbell-Hughes) and boyfriend Ben (Rasmus Hardiker) have inexplicably stopped their weekly demands for money, the best bit of the show each week (apart from Magda, obviously) is turning out to be the pre-title sequence when we see Rick at work.

Skinner and Dee - funny men at work

Dee did his bewildered, world-weary thing perfect well, although it could have been genuine - and frankly was not unreasonable given his team mates. The combination of the comedian, pop singer Stine B and TV presenter Anna Richardson was not a comfortable one. At one point, Richardson said she felt like Dee was her dad at a wedding. Yes, I imagine he did too.

Overall, Skinner took a workmanlike approach to the show. He proved to be a decent captain and, most importantly, helped turn the show into more of an ensemble piece - something that's been lacking since Bill Bailey's departure. Let's hope whoever gets the gig has that skill in spades.

Jack Dee and Pete Sinclair's bitter-hearted comedy enters its third season and seems to have found its feet. We return to find Magda, the wonderfully sullen Polish help, has moved in until her boiler is fixed.

Although the return of Jack Dee's grumpy comedian Rick Spleen is always welcome, the start of series three misses the bull's eye a bit tonight. Maybe it's because there's no sense of cause or effect.

Mildly irritating things happen to Spleen, of course, but what's missing is that delicious realisation that he's brought it all on himself. (See Fawlty Towers or Curb Your Enthusiasm for more information). If Spleen's predicament is simply that he's surrounded by idiots then he might as well be Ben Harper from My Family.

Jack Dee returns as angst-ridden comedian Rick Spleen in this third run of the entertaining series, which sees us discovering a whole lot more about his complicated world and the colourful people who inhabit it.

Rick's socially inept behaviour continues to land him in a whole heap of trouble as he just can't seem to see the world how everyone else does.

Jack Dee 'happy' with BBC sitcom

Stand-up comedian Jack Dee says he's not as nervous about the new series of BBC Two sitcom Lead Balloon as he was when the show was first aired on TV in 2006.

Grumpy glory

Jack Dee says the US is keen to look at his sitcom, Lead Balloon, but he has no intention of trying his luck in America.