Mark Wright (I)

Oh dear, this could get messy. This Jimmy Nail starring sitcom casts the Geordie crooner as one of a group of parents who want to muscle in on the band being formed by their teenage offspring. Okay, it doesn't sound that bad, but it misfires from the start with a mercilessly low gag rate. Is it too late to bring back After You've Gone?

Ah, this is more like it. It takes a misguided attempt at sitcom like Parents of the Band that really makes you appreciate the quality of The IT Crowd. A trio of central characters that work well together, some nicely executed performances, comedy that ranges from observational to absurdity, and, most important of all, some gags that make people laugh. It's not a classic, but at least it is funny.

Perhaps the best show on the box at the moment, and if you're not watching, then shame on you! Outnumbered is sublime and familiar and laugh out loud funny as Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis attempt to keep their boisterous brood under control. Hugh Dennis is just brilliant, which is a surprise as he's probably best known to a wider audience (outside Radio 4) as a low rent secondary character in My Hero (shudder).

Graham Linehan's always-enjoyable comedy returns for a third run, but as before, it still leaves me yearning for the vibrancy and wit of his Dylan Moran collaboration, Black Books. Still, I'll take what I can get (and compared to Clone, The IT Crowd looks like vintage Galton and Simpson). Roy, Moss and Jen are still stuck in the basement, attending to the IT needs of Reynholm Industries, while Douglas (Matt Berry) does his level best to run his father's company into the ground.

Ahead of the much-anticipated Christmas special, the big success story of BBC3's comedy output is promoted to the heady heights of BBC1 for a welcome repeat of the just-as-good-as-the-first second series. The more people that see this show the better, as it's absolutely stonking, with Ruth Jones and James Corden's scripts hitting the right note between sweet and subversive. If there's one criticism, Gavin and Stacey themselves take a back seat for much of the series, but blame the writers for creating such a lovable and well-drawn group of characters. Brilliant.

An odd piece of scheduling for a brilliant comedy. I hope this doesn't turn into another Trevor's World of Sport for co-writer Andy Hamilton, because the second series of this insidiously clever piece of work deserves an audience. Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner return as parents Pete and Sue, constantly trying (and generally failing) to corral their brood of three boisterous children. The beauty is in the fact the kids are rarely working from a script, with a lot of the comedy coming from just letting the child actors get on with it and see what happens. Cracking!

As the cold winter nights draw in, we can all be thankful that Harry Hill is around to give us a belly laugh at his droll observations on the week in telly. Sublime.

This lovely little drama from Craig Cash and Phil Mealey comes to an end as Bing (a rather excellent Steve Coogan - which is a relief after last week's criticisms of his live show) attempts to beat his gambling addiction once and for all and win back his wife. He has a lot of hurdles to overcome, and then there are his dad's problems waiting to come to light - will they send Bing spiralling back into the grip of addiction? There'll be tears and laughter before bedtime, mark my words...

The long-running satirical panel show returns for a new run with perennial team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton all present and correct. It never ceases to amaze that this show remains as fresh as ever after 18 years on air and always earns its keep in the schedules.

Saints be praised, Harry Hill is back for a mammoth run, and this swells my heart with pleasure at the belly laughs ahead. Hill has mined a rich seam of comedy to poke some gentle fun at the medium that is the preoccupation of a nation. All the usual silliness is there, and of course, Bear Grylls, will no doubt be in the firing line. Brilliant, sublime stuff!