Mark Heap

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.

Stay tuned for the latest six-part series of Tom Collinson's slightly surreal sitcom that finds our hero, Dave (Reece Shearsmith) still living in the self-storage container of the title after the break-up of his marriage. Here he considers the great conundrum we call life in the company of, in particular, the borderline psychotic Geoff (Mark Heap) and the sensitive and cultivated security guard Ron (Tom Goodman-Hill). This much is as before. What's new for the first episode of this new series is that Dave's sister has moved into the same storage building as Dave after a series of rows with her husband. Which raises the question: given the current downturn in the economy, could storage containers be the new bijou semi?

Big Train seems to be achieving belated cult status. There are several reasons for the delayed reaction, perhaps most notably the cast's subsequent successes: in the second series from 2002, which is showing this weekend, Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg and Green Wing's Mark Heap are joined by a pre-fame Catherine Tate and a pre-EastEnders Tracy-Ann Oberman. But it is the off-the-wall humour of the writers, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, the creators of Father Ted, that really makes this one comedy repeat worth devoting a significant part of your weekend to.