Mike Ward

Let's not get carried away by suggesting it could be the new Friday Night Live (the line-up is more mainstream - and besides, it's pre-recorded) but this one-off special, hosted by Jason Manford and blending music with topical comedy (it's taped the night before) does have the makings of something half-decent (he says, generously). Terrible title, mind.

It's high time we had a decent comedy-drama to get our teeth into, and this new Monday night six-parter looks like being just the job. With a fine cast of instantly recognisable faces, including Ralf Little, Lucy Davis and ex-Spooks star Miranda Raison, it centres on three decidedly different couples, each with their own distinctive hang-ups. Babs (Amanda Abbington) looks set to dump her loveable but hopeless husband Dickie (Dean Lennox Kelly), while Clint (Little) seems incapable of more than a one-night stand - until gorgeous model Abbey (Raison) walks into his life.

As for Eddie (Shaun Dooley), he still can't persuade partner Lillie (Lucy Davis) to marry him, even after 16 years - but can the couple's youngest son seal the deal for him?

We've known for a while that there wouldn't be any more Only Fools And Horses. But creator John Sullivan is happy to wind back the clock instead, taking us back 50 years for this feature-length comedy-drama, focusing on the Trotter family's early years.

Set in the less-than-swinging Peckham of 1960, the story centres on glamorous (in a low-budget kind of way) cinema usherette Joan Trotter, played by Kellie Bright, along with waste-of-space husband Reg (Shaun Dingwall) and their teenage lad Derek - hanging out with pals Boycie, Trigger, Denzil and Jumbo Mills and already showing entrepreneurial tendencies.

Only Fools' Nicholas Lyndhurst is "art connoisseur" Freddie Robdal, fresh out of jail and set to cause ructions in the Trotter household.

It's not The Fast Show and nor does it try to be, but this new series, a spin-off from Radio 4's award-winning spoof phone-in Down The Line, finds Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson back together on TV for the first time in a decade, with their old mucker Simon Day also popping up in some of the sketches.

The Bellamy of the title is radio host Gary (Rhys Thomas), who sets off on a trip around the UK, encountering all kinds of bizarre, eccentric characters - many of whom, of course, look naggingly familiar.

They include a celebrity criminal, a 23-stone bed-ridden man, and a pair of posh sisters with decidedly dubious political views. Other top comic talents putting in an appearance include Lucy Montgomery, Rosie Cavaliero and Felix Dexter.

The marvellous Victoria Wood returned to our screens the other night with her first Christmas special in nearly a decade - a show which reunited her with, among others, her old friend Julie "Mrs Overall" Walters.

Here, to savour while we're still in the mood, is a not-remotely-serious documentary, showing how it was all was put together. Sort of.

If only because it centres so much on the precocious (yet, for the most part, just the right side of annoying) younger members of the cast, there's an obviously limited shelf to this series, centred on the chaotic everyday life of a middle-class south London family. So, who knows, this may well be both the first and last Outnumbered Christmas special.

If it is, it's comfortably up to the standard of the two full series we've enjoyed so far, as we descend upon the Brockman family - Pete (Hugh Dennis), Sue (Claire Skinner) and their unruly offspring Ben, Jake and Karen (Daniel Roche, Tyger Drew-Honey and Ramona Marquez) - on a less than blissful Boxing Day.

Shall I tell you what I hate about TV Burp? It's never long enough. While many shows on telly seem to drag, half an hour in Harry's company always flies by frustratingly quickly.

Still, leave the audience wanting more, I guess that's the idea. Here he takes his a look back at 2009, as you could probably have figured out for yourself from the title.

Held over from the end of the last series, back at the start of the year, this festively themed episode of Lee Mack's likeably daft sitcom (we demand more, by the way) features Bobby Ball as Lee's estranged dad. Although this man walked out on his family when his son was only four, Lucy (Sally Bretton) thinks her flatmate should forgive and forget.

Some TV revivals reek of desperation. But this one works beautifully, hitting its stride so effectively from the start that it's hard to imagine it's been off our screens (at least as a regular BBC2 fixture) for 12 years.

Hosts Vic and Bob clearly relish this chance to resume the madness, as does original captain Ulrika Jonsson, while Ulrika's grumpy new rival skipper Jack Dee takes to the role with ease.

All the familiar stuff is back - catchphrases, Dove From Above, Matt Lucas as big drum-bashing baby George Dawes - so if you loved it then, you'll love it now.

Do you ever have those really weird dreams where famous people crop up in bizarre situations? Paul Ross unicycling through Matalan, that kind of thing? Well, is it just me or does Hotel Babylon, with each passing week, feel increasingly like one of those dreams?