Jonathan Wright

On 23 April, following a short illness, comedy writer John Sullivan died, aged 64. As this tribute will presumably explore (there was minimal information available as we went to press) he left behind an extraordinary body of work, including Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends. Most famously of all, he created Only Fools and Horses, a show that paradoxically it's rather too easy to take for granted because of its success. Better to remember that sitcoms don't become as much a part of the national consciousness as the adventures of Del and Rodney without tapping into some deeper truth.

If a biopic of Britain's favourite "silly, frigid, fat girl", Hattie Jacques, sounds a lark, then be warned: this is a bittersweet drama that focuses on the actor's relationship with a younger lover. It's an affair that ultimately destroys her marriage to Dad's Army actor John Le Mesurier - who was also cuckolded in a similar BBC4 biopic, Hancock And Joan - as Jacques, hopelessly in lust, moves her lover into her marital home as a lodger. Ruth Jones, deftly showing Jacques as both selfish and capable of self-deprecating charm, heads an impressive cast.

In what looks decidedly like a sod-it capitulation to the bigger networks, Channel 5 continues its retro repeats. First, that means Frank Spencer trying to pass his driving test. Rubbish in 1975, still rubbish now. Far better is Butterflies (9pm) from 1979, Carla Lane's bittersweet dissection of middle-class life, at its best like a Margaret Drabble novel played for laughs. Finally, there's an episode of Terry and June (9.45pm), nominally from 1982 but actually existing in its own timeless suburban realm of double entendres and cheesy gags. That's not a criticism, by the way.

In a comedy based on Douglas Adams's novels, Stephen Mangan stars as detective Dirk Gently, whose investigative technique is based on "an unswerving belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" - even when he's searching for a missing cat. Happily, the switchback script here, by Howard Overman (Misfits), has a kind of pointedly whimsical quality that's pure Adams. Less happily, there are moments when Mangan's kinetic energy overwhelms the rest of the cast. On balance, though, you suspect Gently's notoriously deadline-averse creator would approve. A series please.

BBC announces winners of All Mixed Up competition

Former Arts Educational School London students Ben Syder and Jonathan Wright have won the BBC's All Mixed Up writing competition.

On what should be a dull nightshift, nurse Kim Wilde plays solitaire on the computer. Bliss. Except Kim's hopes of a quiet night prove to be forlorn when, first, she's left alone on the ward because the night sister leaves early, and then B4 welcomes an emergency admission whose condition is unusual enough to attract the attentions of ambitious Dr Moore. If this weren't difficult enough, Kim also has to contend with a tired and emotional Den (teary phone message to Hilary: "Maybe we could try for a baby . . ."). Controlled mayhem, beautifully anchored by deadpan Jo Brand's comic timing.

Still potentially in the dock over an inappropriate remark, nurse Kim Wilde (Jo Brand) isn't happy. "I came back to nursing to get away from the kids and it's even shitter here than it is at home," she reckons. You can see her point. When a B4 patient, Peggy Lowe (the excellent Hazel Douglas), has a bath-time accident, everyone seems more interested in avoiding the blame than making an honest appraisal of what went wrong. Elsewhere, an excited Doctor Pippa has momentous news: "My faecal forum presentation text has been translated into 17 languages." Director Peter Capaldi guests as consultant Peter Healy.

"Can we just stop there and get used to that layer?" says nurse Kim Wilde (Jo Brand) as she gingerly picks at the stinking garments worn by an as yet unidentified new admission to geriatric ward B4. Returning for a second series, Getting On remains about as far removed from conventional sitcoms as it's possible to get. Which, as the festering old lady is shunted around the hospital because the staff don't really want to deal with her and anyway they're preoccupied with their own personal psycho-dramas, is precisely why it's required viewing. Laugh-out-loud funny, tears-to-your-eyes sad. Marvellous.

Scripted by Catherine Johnson of Mamma Mia! fame, Dappers is a comedy pilot that follows the misadventures of two young mums (Ty Glaser and Lenora Crichlow) on the dole in Bristol. The plot revolves around the duo, AKA "Del and Rodders in thongs", setting up a dog-walking service after losing their cash-in-hand cleaning job. It has energy and vim and the set-up, with the duo living in housing association flats next to well-heeled neighbours in posh Clifton, is promising, but there aren't enough decent one-liners to carry the day.

While his rants on Radio 4's Now Show have garnered a cult following, Marcus Brigstocke has yet to go truly mainstream. That's by no means a bad thing, in that Brigstocke doesn't turn up endlessly on panel shows, so it's always good to see him. Here, in a series first broadcast on BBC4, he gets celebs to embark on five new cultural experiences. Tonight, that means broadcaster Emily Maitlis listening to Dolly Parton, watching The Godfather, reading The Satanic Verses, playing a videogame and riding a motorbike.