Katy Wix

There were more laughs in The Windsors than there were in the frankly bizarre Flowers. The Windsors comes from team behind the long-forgotten Star Stories and imagines the royal family as the stars of a Dallas-style soap opera. Obviously some of the jokes are quite obvious such as everybody fawning over Pippa Middleton's arse and Fergie (Katy Wix) being a complete embarrassment to the entire royal family. However there were some gems among the myriad of gags most notably the Middletons gypsy heritage which Kate (Louise Ford) is still proud of to this day. The bizarre soapy elements of The Windsors also lend a sense of ridiculousness to the show which is keen to demonstrate the fact it doesn't take itself too seriously. The main thrust of the plot is that Charles and Camilla (Harry Enfield and Haydn Gwynne) are worried that the line of succession is going to skip a generation as Wills and Kate are much more popular than they are. Camilla's plot to take down Kate by getting her to dress as a pirate during a military amputee ball was an inspired gag as is the central plot thread of the Duchess of Cornwall attempting to have another child. Other highlights included Harry (Richard Goulding) not being able to differentiate between the many blondes he's been linked to and Wills' (Hugh Skinner) need to become a helicopter pilot again. But my favourite characters was the frankly clueless sisters Beatrice and Eugenie (Ellie White and Celeste Dring) who attempted to start an online make-up tips business to make some much needed cash. Although The Windsors didn't always hang together it did a good job at both creating larger-than-life versions of our royal family and at the same time staying true to its soap opera spoof style. The majority of the cast looked like they were having a good time and I was particularly fond of W1A's Hugh Skinner's performance as the affable William who tried to balance his duty with his love of flying. In fact the only person who slightly spoiled the show for me was Morgana Robinson who, despite being a fine impressionist, was a bit out of place here in her role as Pippa Middleton. While nobody should go into The Windsors expecting the next big comedy hit it's good to have a bit of satirical fun on the box once in a while. Additionally I feel that Channel Four have definitely made the right decision by putting it on on a Friday

The Windsors, Channel 4, review

There's some mildly subversive satire in there if you look hard enough.

Review: The Windsors

There are some neat, if not side-splitting, lines and enjoyably daft premises, but the show never really takes off. A lot of the scenes have a touch of the Spitting Image about them for sure - but what works as sketch doesn't necessarily sustain for a full narrative.

Radio Times review

And you thought Not Going Out ended for good last Christmas when hopeless slacker Lee actually did the right thing for once and married the long-suffering Lucy.

But no, everyone is back for a special episode with a festive theme. A year on from the wedding and Lucy (Sally Bretton) is heavily pregnant, three days overdue with her and Lee's first baby. But the poor woman can't simply put her feet up and await the birth, she and Lee (Lee Mack) are embroiled in a hold-up at a department store. Their captor is Father Christmas himself.

All of the regulars return, including the estimable Katy Wix as dopey Daisy, and the gag count is as high as ever.

Katy Wix interview

'I've written women who swear and are allowed to be intelligent'

Together review

A dated, dull script and a below-par performance from the leading man means that even the brilliant performers in it (Katy Wix, Cara Theobold etc.) can't save it.

Together is written by and stars Johnny Sweet; a performer who up to know I hadn't really rated which made this charming sitcom all the more surprising. Sweet plays Tom a rather kind-hearted if foolish guy whose sister (Katy Wix) is constantly setting him up on blind dates which go rather badly. During the episode Tom keeps encountering Ellen (Cara Theobold) a rather outspoken young woman whose ex-boyfriend Luke (Jaz Deol) is constantly trying to win her back. The problem with the first episode of a romantic comedy series is that we have to sit through a number of missed opportunities before the central couple hit it off. The missteps in the first episode of Together include Tom seeing Ellen naked at a life drawing class and later encountering a rather saucy couple as he tries to gatecrash a party she's attending. Although Sweet crafts several awkward moments during the episode they never feel embarrassing and rather surprisingly most of them ring true. Sweet is helped by the fact that the script has been edited by Tim Key and Jeremy Dyson who have obviously aided in the general flow of the comedy therefore no scene outstays its welcome and almost every moment is played for laughs but at the same time the central relationship is never forgotten. In their handful of scenes together I felt that Sweet and Theobold had natural chemistry and I found the final scene particularly touching. However the majority of the highlights in this first episode came courtesy of Vicki Pepperdine and Alex McQueen as Tom's well-meaning parents. McQueen's soliloquy about the right temperature in which to serve rhubarb yoghurt was especially hilarious as were Pepperdine's attempts to dispose of her on-screen husband's junk. Even though Together never blew me away, I found it to be a charming sitcom full of promise and one that I'm definitely going to stick with for the time being.