Mark Heap

This three-part comedy follows the hikes, heartaches, friendships and rivalries of a misfit rambling club. Last night's opener saw newcomer Christine, played by the always-excellent Ruth Jones, joining them from north Devon. She arrived equipped for every eventuality, including a stash of emergency flares, a cagoule with breathable vents and a jumbo box of cereal bars.

Her outspoken manner and constant rejoinders that "this wasn't how they did things in Barnstaple" soon rubbed group leader Bob (Green Wing's Mark Heap) up the wrong way. "She's like Ranulph Fiennes on HRT," he muttered bitterly to right-hand man Tom.

Meanwhile, Bob's daughter Hazel was battling the unwanted attentions of toothy teenager Victor and Tom was revelling in his newfound unemployment. "I've been out of work before, but I really want to make a go of it this time," he told Christine.

Bob's long-term ambition is to create the biggest rambling club in the Chilterns. Unfortunately, his rubbish jokes and tendency to dictate the conversational topics mile by mile ("OK, mile one topic: dinner with a Beatle... living or dead, which wife and what's the menu?") mean new members keep falling by the wayside.

The laugh-out loud moments may have been few and far between, but we reckon this gentle adventure is definitely worth keeping up with for the next mile or two.

A misfit rambling club is the setting for this new three-part comedy and its strong cast bodes well. Heartache, hiking and punch-ups are promised in the series, which opens with Bob (Mark Heap) facing a battle of wills with Christine (Ruth Jones), the newest member of his cherished rambling club. She's been barred from another club and arrives with a GPS and all the latest kit and Bob soon spots a rival. Each week reveals a new crisis.

A three-parter promising "lovely views, stolen kisses, packed lunches and punch-ups": each episode shows us one day trip taken by a group of squabbling ramblers. It should be fertile comedy ground, and the cast is superb: Lark Rise to Candleford's master of elongated suffering, Mark Heap, stars as group leader Bob, with Gavin & Stacey's Ruth Jones playing Christine, a new member just arrived from Barnstaple. If that weren't upsetting enough, she's got a GPS and fancy hiking socks...

This promising new comedy follows the hikes, heartaches, friendships and rivalries of a misfit rambling club. Gavin & Stacey actress Ruth Jones stars opposite Mark Heap, who you may recognise from Lark Rise to Candleford and Spaced.

Part of BBC Four's Outdoor Season, The Great Outdoors has the potential to be one of the comedy hits of the year. Heap and Jones are two of the UK comedy scene's hottest properties and the show's writers, BAFTA award-winning and rambling-loving duo Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley worked together on the hilarious Black Books. Let's hope the show lives up to its promise.

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.

We've got a lot of affection for Mark Heap and Ruth Jones, have a good deal of time for the work of Hyperdrive writers Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley and even like the idea of a comedy about a hapless group of ramblers. Unfortunately we didn't get a preview, so all we really know is that Christine (Ruth Jones) is hyper-efficient and wants to take over leadership of the ramblers from Bob (Mark Heap).

Julia Davis is certainly no stranger to black comedy, having already appeared in twisted shows like Human Remains and Nighty Night, but it's a little surprising to see Spaced's Jessica Hynes (nee Stephenson) partnering her to write and star in a black-hearted tale of suburban revenge...

Lizzie (Davis) and Sarah (Hynes) are two fiftysomething housewives living in suburbia, both married to loathsome husbands who treat them with callous disregard and sneering contempt. Lizzie's husband John (David Cann) is having an obvious affair with their corpulent, lazy housekeeper Branita (Jessica Gunning); Sarah's husband Michael (Mark Heap) has taken to having meaningless, functional sex with her while he hides her face behind a pillow. Both introverted women are cowed into submission and have allowed themselves to accept their lot in life, as unloved slaves whose only escape from tedium and bullying is an amateur dramatics society. However, after a day of particularly unforgiveable treatment by their other halves, Lizzie and Sarah find themselves pushed to breaking point and, having come into possession of a handgun, decide to enact their revenge...

Lizzie And Sarah is of a particular style and content that many people just won't find particularly funny, that much is certain. Indeed, the BBC were allegedly so dumbfounded by this pilot's depressing tone that they scheduled it for a Saturday night graveyard slot of 11.55pm, so the chance of a full series doesn't look likely. If one is even necessary, as the story appeared to reach enough of a conclusion that I can't imagine what else Lizzie And Sarah would have to say. It was effectively 15-minutes of matrimonial bullying that segwayed into a domestic revenge scenario that lacked imagination because it was basically comprised of shooting their psychological aggressors dead with a gun they'd stolen from a thief.

The titular characters themselves were interchangeable; having no meaningful differences in temperament, accent, lifestyle, or taste in men. Their horrid husbands were likewise peas in a particularly odious pod. A subplot involving a memorial for a girl ran over by her own father's (Kevin Eldon) car, which inspired a musical memorial performed by two teenage classmates (Davis and Hynes), who gyrated to the Sugababes' Hey Sexy for the approval of a talent scout in the crowd, just felt misplaced and could have been cut entirely.

As a fan of Davis, Hynes and black comedy in general (which nobody does quite like us British), Lizzie And Sarah certainly had decent moments of chilling humour, uncomfortable bad taste, and jokes so near the knuckle they drew blood. However, a feeble storyline, near-identical characterisation for the leads, and unimaginative vengeance (just shoot the browbeaters), dealt enough blows to make this pilot feel like a wasted opportunity. I'd like to believe Davis and Hynes knew there'd be little hope of a full series, so opted to complete their story here, because I don't see any reason or need for more.

Julia Davis (Nighty Night, Human Remains) and Jessica Hynes (Spaced, The Royle Family) have partnered for the new BBC2 comedy pilot Lizzie And Sarah, playing two fiftysomething suburban housewives who are ignored by their selfish husbands, but are inspired by the tragic death of a teenager to take revenge.

If you're a fan of very dark comedy, this looks promising, although the "joke" of the trailer appears to the total absence of any traditional laughs and its oppressive, sinister tone. But it's packed full of familiar faces from British comedy (Mark Heap, Kevin Eldon, David Cann, etc), most of whom have appeared in similarly blackhearted comedies; from the aforementioned Nighty Night and Human Remains, through satirist Chris Morris' Brass Eye and Jam.

Apparently, Lizzie & Sarah is being sneaked out on BBC2 with little fanfare and in a graveyard slot (Saturdays, 11:45pm!) because the BBC were shocked by how dark and twisted it is, which is a shame. But I know that fact just gave plenty of people a frisson of excitement. Lizzie & Sarah hits the airwaves on 20 March. I hope it's funny, but in a sick way.

Final edition of an excellent series that has presented characters so strong, difficult and at times sexually charged that you forget they are disabled, while at key points being sharply reminded of the challenges they face. Carrie, the dwarf, on whom the last episode focuses, is a case in point. Months after the island, she is training with Mark Heap's professional clown to become a children's entertainer. As well as finding her a handful, Heap gets a sense of what it is like for a person like her to walk through the world. Meanwhile, back in time and on the island, everyone puts aside mixed emotions to say their farewells.