Jude Wright

Since Pick TV is handing over Thursday evenings to Sky programming, two comedies are currently being shown to Freeview audiences for the first time. One of these is Spy, a pre-watershed sitcom starring Darren Boyd.

For those who haven't seen the past two seasons, Boyd plays Tim, a divorced man working in an electronic store, who just wants to please his precocious son Marcus (Jude Wright). Tim decides to get himself a new job, but due to a mix up he ends up being recruited into MI5. And due to the Official Secrets Act, he can't tell Marcus about his exciting work...

The opening episode had a fair few laughs in it, mostly visual. It has to be said that some scenes, especially the one in which Tim takes an exam and covers his desk in stationary and good luck items, reminds me somewhat of the opening episode of Mr Bean which features a similar scene, albeit with the absence of studio laughter (which some would argue to be an improvement).

The characters, however, are the key. Tim's MI5 boss, "The Examiner" (Robert Lindsey), is a fun creation and from what I understand is very good. However, Marcus was totally unbearable; I just didn't like him at all. It's a pity that Tim didn't have an actual licence to kill and do away with the annoying little monster.

I'd like to think I'd keep watching Spy, but to be honest Marcus is so off-putting I'm not sure if I would...

The stringently funny comedy ends its second series with an episode that, in proper Christmas-special tradition, is twice the usual length and 40 per cent sillier. Ten-year-old Marcus (the freakishly good Jude Wright) auditions fellow pupils for a seasonal musical, with customary ruthlessness: "There are prisoners in Guantánamo being waterboarded who sound better than you..." Even his dad Tim fails to win a part, despite Darren Boyd unleashing a stunning singing voice.

When MI5 agent Tim's office affair with Caitlin (Rebekah Staton) is discovered, there are guns drawn and truths told. Back at school, a talent shortage on the big night means desperate time-filling, à la gourmet night at Fawlty Towers.

A Bafta winner and nominated for (but didn't win) an International Emmy last month, this espionage comedy caper certainly has its admirers even if some may find it overly silly. That said, the cast cannot be faulted, chief among them are the excellent Darren Boyd as the hapless, accidental spy Tim, and Robert Lindsay as his maniac boss, "The Examiner". In tonight's episode Tim gets just the required push needed to try to rekindle his romance with fellow spook Caitlin (Rebekah Staton) after he discovers he's on an assassin's hit list. Meanwhile, the precocious Marcus (the often scene-stealing Jude Wright), finds the perfect moment to humiliate a rival at school as he again seeks the affections of Justine (Ellie Hopkins).

After years of toiling in the background, Darren Boyd's Bafta for comedy performance in Spy was a welcome surprise. Series two brings more of the same, showcasing his aptitude for physical and verbal comedy, even if the excellent Robert Lindsay is still used only sparingly. Accidental MI5 agent Tim (Boyd) is back from holiday and given his first interrogation, while inadvertently reuniting unrequited love Caitlin (Rebekah Staton) with her ex. The star of the show is probably Jude Wright as Tim's poisonous son, Marcus, this week given a slippery (and therefore entirely worthy) adversary in the election for president of the school council. That said boy's name is Nick is milked to full effect in this age of non-existent Cleggism. The novelty value may have worn off, but Spy is still superior family-friendly fare.

Series two of the unerringly funny comedy about an idiot mistakenly hired by MI5. Darren Boyd won a Bafta for the lead role of bumbling Tim in the first series - but during the course of the run, an embarrassment of other good characters emerged.

So while Tim's ongoing efforts to snare his gorgeous colleague Caitlin (Rebekah Staton) and avoid being corrupted by his insane boss (Robert Lindsay) are still funny, they are subplots here.

Instead we focus on Tim's young son Marcus, played by the superb Jude Wright. Usually the most terrifyingly assured male on TV, Marcus now finds his opponent in the election for school president is a sharper, slicker version of himself. An über-Marcus.

Darren Boyd picked up a Bafta for his performance as hapless computer salesman Tim, who has accidentally been recruited as an MI5 operative, in this slight comedy. It's now back for a second series, and tonight Tim's precocious son, Marcus (Jude Wright), finds he has a rival in his bid to be school president. Boyd is good, as is Robert Lindsay as his odd boss, The Examiner, but it's often Wright who steals the show.

Fans of BBC Radio 4's cult ­Dickensian spoof Bleak ­Expectations will be delightified at the news that Mark Evans has penned a Christmas special for TV.

The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff - the first of a four-parter - is a brand new story but a very familiar one that's stuffed with those essential Dickensian staples - flinty-hearted lawyers, grubby-faced urchins bursting into song, cobwebby spinsters, suggestive surnames and the spectre of debtor's prison, known here as The Skint.

Robert Webb stars as the kindly Jedrington Secret-Past - owner of The Old Shop Of Stuff. But his hopes for a happy Christmas with his loving family are shattered by the arrival of evil lawyer Malifax Skulkingworm (Stephen Fry), a sinful man in an unusual hat demanding an unpaid debt that will be his ruin.

The cast includes David Mitchell as an exceedingly jolly man, Johnny Vegas (already a veteran of the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House), Katherine Parkinson, Celia Imrie and Pauline McLynn - as well as a small but pivotal role in every sense for young Jude Wright from Sky's recent sitcom Spy.

TV provides the opportunity for the kind of visual sight gags and special effects that radio doesn't and they've really gone to town creating a virtual Victorian London.

Purists might argue that it's funnier on the radio when your imagination is left to supply the pictures, but this still serves up a splendidly silly start to the Christmas week.

For a series called Spy, there's precious little actual spying going on in this sitcom - unless you count its trademark camera trick of having characters suddenly appear out of thin air.

But there's something quite heroic about the way the performances stretch to cover the gaps in logic.

Jude Wright, who plays Tim's precocious son Marcus, continues to get all the best scenes but the sheer number of scenes featuring school-kids is starting to make me think this show should really be pitched at the Horrible Histories generation.

Take out all the sex and drugs and Spy would be the perfect comedy for any discerning nine-year-old.

Review: Spy, 1.4 - "Codename: Bookclub"

It's still lame and ill-conceived on so many levels, but I hope someone recognises Jude Wright's skills as a young actor and gives him a sitcom to headline.

No, that's not Lord Sugar in his first acting role. It's actually a bearded Robert Lindsay playing a recruiter from MI5 in this promising new British sitcom.

Darren Boyd stars as Tim, a bumbling single dad who quits his dead-end job in a computer shop and aces the aptitude test for a civil service job without knowing what he's applying for.

He's obviously not a Spooks fan, or he'd recognise the door.

As well as Spooks, this sitcom, follows in the wake of Johnny English and also the American spy comedy Chuck, whose hero also worked in a computer store.

The show's secret weapon is Tim's son, Marcus (Jude Wright), a cynical, middle-aged head on a nine-year-old's body.

In a different intellectual league from most wise-cracking kids, Marcus is actually more like Stewie, the evil talking baby from Family Guy. Not the most original ingredients, but as long as Spy keeps us laughing, that shouldn't matter.