Katherine Parkinson

Grandma's House, Rev, Roger and Val Have Just Got In and now this. It's the latest artful, up-market sitcom from BBC2, written like a comedy but filmed like a drama. It will leave some viewers disappointed if they're expecting big gags or hearty laughs, but it will draw others in because (a) it's got the lovable Alan Davies in the lead, and (b) there's something engaging about its setting and characters - the staff of a swanky rural restaurant. The establishment is called The White House after its chef Roland White, played by Davies with a straggly hair-do and a patchy beard that may or may not be modelled on Marco Pierre of the same name. Unusually for a chef, Roland is laid-back and apparently lacking in passion - he's more interested in recording notes for his meat-based memoirs ("Chapter Two: Black Pudding," he announces into his dictaphone) than helping out in the chaotic kitchens. Katherine Parkinson plays his long-suffering maître d', who struggles to keep him in line, and Darren Boyd his uptight sous-chef. As ever with the first episode of a new sitcom, there's more appetiser than entrée, but it bodes well for flavourful fare to come.

Alan Davies is a love him or hate him kind of actor, but Whites shows just how likable and nuanced he can be. More surprisingly here, perhaps, since he stars as Roland White, an "executive chef" in a high-end restaurant. White is, needless to say, an offal-crazed gastronome with mad hair, but he's not a monster, and that speaks well of the subtleties of this very funny show co-written by Matt "Super Hans" King. Able support comes from Katherine Parkinson and Stephen Wight as weird, ambitious new chef Skoose.

He's a versatile man, is Alan Davies. He plays the fool in QI, a magician/detective in Jonathan Creek and has just relived his revolutionary teen years for documentary purposes. For this new sitcom he's in actorly mode again, playing a hotel head chef called Roland White - any relation to Marco Pierre? - who goes against the grain of the highly stressed Gordon Ramsays of this world by being a bit of a slacker. Also stars Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd) and Isy Suttie (Dobby from Peep Show).

The second series of this gentle sitcom about two OAP housemates comes to an end. Amber (Katherine Parkinson) has persuaded her uptight boyfriend Steve to propose. Sally (Jane Asher), the snobby mother of the groom, plans a lavish wedding. Amber's father Tom (Roger Lloyd Pack) panics at the cost and even considers flogging his beloved motorbike. Not so much bad as boring.

First of all, I need to say a big "Hello!" to Tom (Roger Lloyd Pack), who you can see reading this column in the opening scenes of tonight's episode. Never let it be said that We Love Telly is open to bribery but any shows wanting to be Pick Of The Day in future... let's just say that you know what you have to do.

That's a principle Tom would certainly agree with because tonight he manages to score himself a smartphone in exchange for his daughter's hand in marriage - and I think we all know who got the best end of the deal there.

It's the last in the current series, which has got sprightlier and more adorable by the week. And Tom's making the most of his chance to spend quality time with Sally (Jane Asher) as they thrash out the details of Amber's wedding to Sally's son, Steve.

Katherine Parkinson makes a welcome return as Amber and as well as a new fiancé, she's also got a new hobby to be rubbish at: gardening. "Weeds, flowers - how are you supposed to know?" she despairs as she's confronted by an incriminating wheelbarrow. "Garden­­ing is just racism for plants!"

The last episode in the current series is one of the very best yet. And there's a starring role in it for the brilliant Matt Berry as Douglas Reynholm as he attempts to divorce his second wife in a hilarious episode entitled 'Reynholm v Reynholm'.

In lots of ways, you could describe this as a series of mad ideas, red herrings and reminiscences - stuff that wouldn't fit anywhere else in the series - all loosely held together by the common thread of Douglas's divorce hearing.

Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is representing Douglas in court (in her role as Relationship Manager) while Moss and Roy - reduced to mere bit parts this week - look very uncomfortable indeed in suits and ties.

And there are jokes here about Heston Blumenthal and Star Trek plus a very welcome re-appearance for Noel Fielding as the IT department's resident, but rarely glimpsed, goth ­Richmond Avenal.

It all adds up to an ingeniously constructed comedy patchwork, which is also a pretty good description of Douglas's suit. Roll on series five.

This new comedy boasts a fine cast, including Green Wing's Mark Heap, Gavin & Stacey's Ruth Jones and The IT Crowd's Katherine Parkinson.

There's also some rather nice scenery. The story centres on a rambling club and its peculiar assortment of members, with each episode focusing on one of their excursions.

It's during these that we discover the friendships and rivalries within, most notably the clash between traditionalist Bob (Heap) and newcomer Christine (Jones), the latter's high-tech accessories and fancy gear getting right up the former's nose.

For fellow member Sophie (Parkinson), the outings are a tad less relaxing than she'd envisaged when she and husband Joe (Steve Wight) signed up - but it seems she's considering other ways to unwind...

When I moved up north, I made the mistake of joining a walking club to make new friends. If the company had been as ­entertaining as this, the weather as sunny and the terrain as flat, I might have stuck it out for longer than a month.

This new three-part comedy series stars Mark Heap as Bob, the domineering head of a dwindling group of ramblers in Buckinghamshire. Newcomer Christine (Gavin and Stacey's Ruth Jones) has just joined them from north Devon with an oversized rucksack packed for every eventuality and very outspoken advice about how they used to do things in Barnstaple.

The cast also includes Katherine Parkinson from The IT Crowd and each week will join the group on a different walk. This time Bob is dismayed to discover that his favourite pub has gone gastro and there's an unfortunate incident with a rabbit.

The IT Crowd 4.5 review

This was much closer to my idea of what The IT Crowd should be trying to do each week, even if it still struggled with another weak subplot for Jen (Katherine Parkinson) and a ragged ending that didn't provide the smooth, clever wrap-up I was expecting.

The Old Guys get back on the bus (for free, presumably) for a second series. Written by Peep Show's Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong with The Thick of It writer Simon Blackwell and a cast that includes Clive Swift, Roger Lloyd Pack, Katherine Parkinson and Jane Asher, it oozes class. Series one perhaps didn't quite live up to expectations, but really warmed up over the six episodes. Let's hope that continues with tonight's first episode, as the pair try to win a pub quiz.