Julia Davis

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Steve Coogan is the funniest Brit, coming second on the list, with American Tina Fey coming first. Once again, in a mirroring of a Channel 4 poll in 2007, Stewart Lee came 41st.

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Gavin & Stacey: Why we fell in love with Barry Island

It's been nearly 10 years since we last said adieu to Gavin and Stacey (and Nessa and Smithy, of course). But fans have never given up hope of another reunion and they've now been rewarded with the news that a second Christmas special is in the works.

It is easy to forget just how little Julia Davis cares for what the audience might call "taste" or "decency". Davis plays Emma, a narcissist confronting middle-age by removing any moral boundaries that remain in her life. This includes having sexual relations with her lover's best friend's husband. And when I say "relations", I mean something more sordid than anything I have seen on the small screen before. All of it played for proper, if absolutely excruciating, laughs.

You either love Julia Davis or think her sick filth ought to be banned. Sally4Ever proved yet again that there is nobody working today - or at least nobody with the same platform - with a blacker sense of humour. Sally (Catherine Shepherd) was already surrounded by monsters: her loser of a boyfriend (Alex MacQueen) and tricky colleagues played by Julian Barratt and Felicity Montagu. Then Emma (Davis herself) arrived, a tornado of sex and bad intentions. Beneath the shagging, drugs, excrement, manipulation and malice were pockets of tenderness, but you had to look pretty hard to see them. Luckily there were also gales of laughter. NB If you have yet to see it, please do not watch it with your parents or children on Boxing Day and then write in to complain.

If you haven't been watching Sally4Ever, I'll make you

It has brought me back to the joys of TV comedy. It's a throwback to that agonising wait for each episode.

Julia Davis' pitiless comedy concludes. Sociopathic Emma (Davis) and fantastically pliant Sally (Catherine Shepherd, who heroically grounds the whole endeavour) are now married and, tonight, they meet the real-life, actual Sean Bean. Then an attack of food poisoning takes an unexpected turn. Few comedies are as unflinching.

Sally4Ever is outrageous, awkward and brutally dark

Sally4Ever is outrageous, awkward and brutally dark humour - it's also one of the best shows on TV right now.

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