Michael Deacon (I)

Andy Hamilton on the secret to Outnumbered's success

Outnumbered is no ordinary family sitcom. Writer Andy Hamilton tells us the little trick that makes it so funny - and so true to life.

Nobody does manic, despairing farce quite like John Cleese, who co-wrote and co-stars in this, his biggest film hit. He plays Archie Leach, a stuffy lawyer who is seduced by the minxy Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) - not realising that she's a bank robber and con artist who's using him for her own wicked ends. Michael Palin co-stars.

We respect artists not self-regarding ones like Gervais

Ricky Gervais is hypocritical to blame the press for deriding artists' efforts, writes Michael Deacon.

Censor Del Boy for being racist? Don't be a plonker

It's no good trying to make the past conform to the mores of the present, says Michael Deacon.

Gregor Fisher on Rab C Nesbitt

After more than ten years away from the screen Rab C Nesbitt is back. Its star Gregor Fisher on the comedy he thought he'd hate.

The 10 funniest TV moments of 2009

Ahead of the British Comedy Awards, The Telegraph selects the gags that tickled it most this year.

Big Top, BBC One, review

A review of the first episode of new BBC comedy Big Top. Big Top is so determinedly old-fashioned that if it were a person it would be wearing plus fours.

Big Top, BBC One, review

The notion that the "traditional British sitcom" is dead has been around for so long that the non-traditional British sitcoms of modern times now almost represent a tradition of their own. The Office, Peep Show, Pulling, The Thick of It, Extras, The Inbetweeners: across the past decade is strung a line of comedies that feature no chucklesome studio audience, precious few uplifting moments and little in the way of genial back-and-forth banter; instead they're gleefully heartless farces that prompt the audience to wince as often as to laugh. Their jokes appear to be designed not to cheer you up but to make you reach despairingly for the nearest bottle. Naturally I love them all.

The Thick of It review

There's nobody on television more humiliating or derogatory than this political sitcom's main character, the tyrannical Malcolm Tucker (played with pop-eyed relish by Peter Capaldi). In this episode, the first in a new series, even the few lines in which he didn't swear were offensive.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb on Peep Show: interview

The writing duo behind Channel 4's popular cult sitcom Peep Show talk about the genesis of their Bafta award-winning show.