Keeley Hawes

Preview - Inside No. 9: Diddle Diddle Dumpling

Every series of Inside No. 9 appears to have an episode set in suburbia. This time around, the family living at No. 9 sees one of its residents going slowly insane.

The devilishly smart, ever-dark anthology series reaches the penultimate episode of its latest run. David (Reece Shearsmith) is unemployed, and wife Louise (Keeley Hawes) is keen for him to get back to work, presumably not only for his own good, but also to pay for their big suburban house. But David has other plans, namely becoming dangerously obsessed with the provenance of a mysterious shoe. Not the strongest episode of the series, but excellent nonetheless.

Preview: Inside No 9 - Diddle Diddle Dumpling, BBC2

A couple's world is changed forever by a seemingly chance find in a local street in the penultimate film of the series.

No doubt who is the biggest star on Graham's sofa tonight, as three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep visits the studio to discuss playing Florence Foster Jenkins in Stephen Frears's biopic of the tuneless opera singer. Streep's co-star Hugh Grant also appears, as does Keeley Hawes, promoting The Durrells. Music arrives from Eurovision hopefuls Joe and Jake, performing You're Not Alone, hopefully not a fateful choice of title given how many Eurovisions have ended with Britain's acts looking very lonely indeed.

Mitchell and Webb's diplomatic comedy drama goes out with a bang as revolting Tazbeks tangle with presidential armed forces.

British ambassador Keith Davis (David Mitchell) is whimpering on the neutral sidelines but luckily for the oppressed locals, wife Jennifer (Keeley Hawes) has enough empathy to make up for her husband and does what she can to rally support for the humanitarian cause.

As for deputy Neil Tilly (Robert Webb), he's got his hands full with a fierce Foreign Office interrogation specialist on a mission to ferret out spies in high places.

Barking In Essex review

Sheila Hancock, Lee Evans and Keeley Hawes star in Clive Exton's ill-judged black farce.

Who needs heavyweight interrogation when you can have a good old-fashioned natter over a Lambrini? Alan Carr's relaxed formula often produces candid moments as he persuades celebrities to let their guard down, and he remains so unstoppable and likable that he'll be celebrating his 100th show this series. Lee Evans and Keeley Hawes are hot on the promotional trail for their West End comedy Barking In Essex, while pop's chirpiest pair, Rizzle Kicks, are on hand to provide the musical entertainment.

ITV likes to dust down its An Audience with... format now and again for vintage stars, and few are worthier of an old-fashioned showcase than that purveyor par excellence of the 1970s power ballad, Barry Manilow. On piano and accompanied by his own orchestra, Manilow displays fine pipes as he opens tonight's show with a rousing rendition of Could It Be Magic. He hits the high notes and emotive key changes with reasonable ease and swivels his hips impressively through Copacabana. Best glossed over are two songs from his new album and the well-rehearsed answers to soft questions lobbed from the audience, but overall his performance is as smooth as his peculiarly boyish forehead.

That's not to say it's superficial - Manilow still sings with an emotional sincerity that excites the tear ducts and brings the audience to its feet. Among the famous "Fanilows" in the audience are actress Keeley Hawes and Gavin & Stacey star Joanna Page, performers who were surely babes in arms when Tony first sailed across the bar to rescue Lola the showgirl. It proves that ITV isn't just tapping into the cheesy nostalgia factor with Manilow - he really does write songs that make the whole world sing.

Often in this show a panellist manages, through artful stumbling, to make everyone else think that a true story is made-up nonsense. Much harder is to pick up a card and read a fabrication you've never seen before, then convince the assembled wits it happened. There's a solid-gold example of the latter tonight, though to say who pulls it off would of course spoil the point. Aside from that, it's a slow starter, but takes off when David Mitchell cross-examines Kevin Bridges over a horse the latter supposedly bought by mistake in Bulgaria. Also taking part, Prof Brian Cox, a giggly Keeley Hawes and Stephen Mangan.

It's impossible not to be cheered up by the return of Mitchell and Webb. They're unfailingly funny, even if their material isn't.

So let's get the bad news out of the way. Two running sketches - Get Me Hennimore! and the British Emergency Broadcasting Service - return, although they've been pretty much sucked dry of comedy potential already. And the first sketch is probably the weakest - a good idea that peters out before it finds its punchline. I can only advise you to think of Robert Webb doing Flashdance in his black leotard to top up the giggle level during the weaker bits.

But there's a brilliant sketch set in the white-coated world of Laboratoire Garnier which also features David Mitchell as a Victorian northern mill owner.

And two more skits are tailor-made for Mitchell's pedantry. He's one of the few comedians who can make grammar hilarious. There's also a guest spot from Keeley Hawes - well, she is in everything else these days.