Mike Ward

The best sitcom of 2012 (and 2011) comes to an end tonight.

Yes, it's time to wave a teary farewell to Twenty Twelve ([y]BBC2[/y], 10pm).

Amid nonsensical PR-speak, the calamity-ridden organisation makes its final blunders. There are so many good things about this show.

Like Jessica Hynes as the wonderful Siobhan. Someone please give this woman her own spin-off.

Since hitting the heady heights of showbusiness with his own telly chat show, Alan Partridge has been careering down fame's slippery slope faster than you can say: 'Ah ha!'

These days, he's reduced to mind-numbingly daft chatter on North Norfolk Digital and in this week's hilarious episode of Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters (Sky Atlantic, 9pm), he conducts a live poll to determine the listeners' favourite piper.

Is it Hamlin, Billie or bag? Yes, it's come to this.

Jennifer Saunders gave herself an Olympian challenge when she agreed to build an episode of her award-winning sitcom around London 2012.

She's managed it, though, with Absolutely Fabulous: Olympics (BBC1, 9.30pm).

Amid the Bolly, the bitching and the fags, her character Edina rents out her London home to a Hollywood A-lister for the Olympics.

However, no-one has told her that she is supposed to move out, along with her family and assistant Bubble (Jane Horrocks), To make matters worse, Edina's ex-husband and girlfriend turn up to stay for the Games.

There is some sports action - if you count Eddy and the fun-loving Patsy (Joanna Lumley) running
for glory in the Olympic stadium and managing to crash a celebrity reception attended by real-life Paralympics legend Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.

If the real Olympic Games are a fraction as entertaining as the fictional fly-on-the-wall comedy series Twenty Twelve (BBC2, 10pm) then we're in for a real treat.

Like so many brilliant programmes this wonderfully scripted and acted show emerged unheralded in the BBC backwaters and gradually seeped into our conscience.

Tonight a creative PR spin is put on Ian Fletcher's predicament.

The Olympics' Head of Deliverance was shot in the foot by a starting pistol last week.

Now the injury is described as "a totally routine accident."

There's another crisis looming as Diversity Day and Inclusivity Day appear to be on a collision course. And Ian's irritating PA finds a better job - working for Seb Coe.

Despite its hilariously comic themes, this show has a very real feel to it, which is what makes it so uncomfortable, yet enjoyable, to watch.

Starting tonight on Channel 4 is The Angelos Epithemiou Show (10.35pm), featuring the oily-haired nerd created by comic Dan Renton Skinner - and best known for his appearances on Shooting Stars.

From first impressions, I have to say this format they've given him doesn't really work for me - I just reckon he's a whole lot funnier when he's disrupting someone else's show, rather than fronting his own - but let me know what you think.

I wouldn't suggest you watch it with your gran, but BBC Three's new comedy series Live at the Electric (9.30pm) is easily worth half an hour of your time.

It's not really live - it couldn't be, I've already watched tonight's episode, they must think we're idiots - but recorded at TV Centre in front of an audience crammed with Russell Kane fans.

At least, I hope they're fans of his, seeing as Russell hosts the whole thing and also does a sizeable chunk of his stand-up.

Mind you, there's plenty more on offer, sketch-wise, from a whole bunch of comedy's rising stars.

It's 100 years since the birth of John Le Mesurier, which is a good enough reason to take another look at the life of this adored actor.

There's nothing really new in It's All Been Rather Lovely (BBC2, 9pm) but it's nice to be reminded of his laid-back style and his extraordinary private life.

This is the man who briefly lost his wife, Hattie Jacques, to his best friend, comic legend Tony Hancock but who remained close to her.

He even took her back, without ever mentioning the split again.

Best remembered as Sgt Wilson, the Dad's Army star, who died in 1983, has a host of celebs queuing up to tell us what a thoroughly decent chap he was.

There's a one-off Ricky Gervais comedy-drama on Channel 4 tonight called Derek (10pm).

It's a bit of a departure from Gervais' normal stuff, the main character being a simple but honest guy who works in an old people's home (alongside his pal Dougie, played by Karl Pilkington, who I have to say doesn't seem to be acting much).

Which is the smuggest nation on Earth?

It's not me asking that question - well, it is, but not originally - but the host of a new show called The Matt Lucas Awards (BBC1, 10.35pm).

That host, though you may find this hard to believe, is Little Britain's Matt Lucas, who originally did a similar programme on Radio 2.

Each week he's joined by three guests - tonight it's Jason Manford, Graham Garden and German stand-up comic Henning Wehn - to debate the sort of award nominations which for obvious reasons don't get a look-in elsewhere.

Others under consideration include the most dreadful football song ever sung.

It looks as if the dozy Olympic compromise to keep the Algerian team happy this week in BBC2's sitcom Twenty Twelve (10pm).

But a potential boycott - initially triggered by the Algerians' fury that the Olympic Village's religious centre doesn't face Mecca, now threatening to start a domino effect that could scupper the whole Games - is the least of committee chief Ian Fletcher's worries.

Not only is his estranged wife giving him grief, but Sally, his irreplaceable but sadly besotted PA, is about to quit.