Jane Anderson (II)

One woman's new comedy drama is another woman's invitation to fill her ears with quick-setting cement. I'm not going to reveal whether I'm currently wiping the tears from my happily strained eyes or sitting in a hospital emergency department, the reason being that my judgement on what makes a successful comedy was written off years ago. I saw a live performance by an act who went by the name of Little Britain and came back to Radio Times to tell everyone that I thought they were rubbish... This new sitcom is billed as "The Thelma and Louise of the sandwich world", with Suranne Jones as Hope and Susan Cookson as Jodie fulfilling those roles. Or should I say rolls, because 90 per cent of the jokes are bread-related.

This one-act play by Noel Coward was thought to be lost, but was rediscovered in a collection of plays in the British library in 2007. It's by no means a masterpiece and some of the issues it covers are horribly outdated - a wife-beater shows he still loves his spouse, for he would not hit her if he did not care - but it does make up for this with deliciously wicked one-liners from Alice, the bored wife who wants to escape her loveless marriage. Federay Holmes obviously enjoyed playing Alice, while Samuel West and Lisa Dillon make the perfect worthy-but-dull husband and girlfriend.

Alf is an elderly gentleman and he's getting very confused. He can hear voices in his head and one of them is his own from the days when he was married. This play by Ed Harris is billed as a tender comedy and there are moments when Alf's confusion becomes gently amusing. But the overall feeling is one of sadness and loss. Alf is grieving fomr his wife, but also mourning the troubled state of their marriage and the onset of dementia. He describes the attack upon his memory as like that of an imperial army, with different countries falling every day. Richard Briers and Rory Kinnear play Alf the older and younger with understated directness and genuine empathy. A brilliant drama.

If the name sounds familiar that's because the playwright Alan Plater has been penning dramas since 1962, when he got his first break on the TV series Z Cars. He's gone on record with his disappointment that, over the subsequent decades, middle-of-the-road TV dramas have been obliged to focus upon personal relationships, leaving no room for spicier extra ingredients like social comment.

This does not apply on radio, where writers are awarded so much more freedom. Plater's play is set in a supremely trendy art gallery in Tyneside. The only hiccup is that the staff are all 'mature' - they've been hired to tick the politically-correct quota box. This is a clever, comic poke at daft bureaucracy, in which age and experience trash fashion and beauty.

The received opinions that are up for unravelling never really matter - it's the level of wit used in the arguments to debunk them that count. David Baddiel and Rufus Hound are n their comedy comfort zones, but it's actually Germaine Greer who comes out as the funniest member of the panel this week.

Welcome to Blandings Castle, home of the Earl of Emsworth and the sublimely eccentric setting for some of PG Wodehouse's best-loved comic novels. Something Fresh is the first Blandings tale and has been recreated for the radio at the request of the Wodehouse estate by Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres.

The absent-minded Earl has accidently pocketed a priceless gem from a wealthy American, who happens to be the father of the girl this hapless son is set to marry. This is but one of the many coincidences that turn this comic-thriller-cum-romance into a joyous, laugh-out-loud romp through upstairs and downstairs life.

The cast list is as starry as they get: Ioan Gruffudd, Helen McCrory and Jared Harris are just some of the names. But special mention must go to director Martin Jarvis who turns in a delightfully batty performance as Emsworth. An absolute pleasure.

Review of the I Tell You It's Burt Reynolds episode:

The family at the heart of this comedy drama are looking forward to watching The Great Escape together on the telly when someone hammers on the front door. It's Uncle Jim, and he's the most argumentative, obnoxious man imaginable. He's also played to perfection by Rik Mayall. June Whitfield is the deaf and slightly loopy grandmother who gets some great throwaway lines from writers Galton and Simpson: "Who's that with their arm round Gordon Brown?" she asks. It's David Attenborough cuddling a chimp in a TV ad. Uncle Jim, meanwhile, is certain he's spotted Burt Reynolds playing a bit part in The Great Escape and uses Radio Times to prove his point. Reynolds is not listed: "Bloody silly magazine," he barks. I knew he was a wrong 'un from the way he knocked on that door.

Another year has passed and Clare In The Community returns for its fifth series. When we last met her, Clare - the antithesis to Carol Thatcher when it comes to political correctness - had an extra burden to add to the weight of her disappointment at being a white, middle-class and straight social worker. She was pregnant with her long-term partner Brian's child.

Now the baby has arrived she's determined not to be stereotyped into doing predictable things such as feeding it, bathing it or holding it. Enter an East European live-in au pair who adds a great flavour to the abusive sarcasm in Brian and Clare's home. Sally Phillips has made the starring role her own and passes off self-obsession so cleverly that Clare sounds irresistible rather than cruel.

Joan Of Arc really loves the cows she looks after for a living, so when those b*****d English put them to death by fire she's on the warpath. And she's going to save the whole of France as well. Dawn French plays the Maid of Orleans with a Jam and Jerusalem West Country accent and there are constant references to her large girth. She's in her comfort zone, but so are we.

Written by Patrick Barlow and co-starring Anne Reid, Maggie Steed and Jim Broadbent, this play's comedy credentials are impeccable. But when events turn more serious, the sound effects conflict, trial and fire are full-on and genuinely moving. As Joan trips towards her famous fate, she loves and loses not just cows.

Anyone who has ever worked in a large organisation knows the routine. It's time for the annual appraisal: dig out every scrap of evidence of praise and hope for a positive performance review. But the signs are grim if you're called to the human resources department for "a little chat" ahead of your appraisal. This two-hander by The Wimbledon Poisoner author Nigel Williams sees a middle-aged, middle-management waste-of-space paddling in potential disaster. Jonathan Pryce is Peter, the tired-of-life-and-exhausted-by-work employee. Unfortunately for him, the telephone conversation in which he berates a supplier with every offensive turn of phrase imaginable has been recorded by his company "for training purposes". Nicholas Le Prevost plays his equally run-down halfcomatose HR manager, Sam, who must try and work out "a way forward" as personnel people say. The performances are first-class, but I could not help being reminded of Reginald Perrin's chats with his depressed HR chief.