Nancy Banks-Smith

Here's a happy resurrection! Nine years after Red Dwarf (Dave) ended, it has been revived as an Easter trilogy. It was always a wonderfully funny and touching idea.

All New Shooting Stars, a one-off special, was an object lesson in never going back. Vic and Bob seemed like their own fathers. The only recognisable celebrity was Jack Dee, who, with a blue tit balanced on his head, stood nose to nose with an opera singer giving Nessun Dorma plenty of welly. Any trembling or precipitation of the tit would indicate failure and cost him a beautiful pillowcase. To watch Dee crack into a smile was joy enough for one night.

In Outnumbered (BBC1, Saturday), I get the strong sensation that Ben and Karen have been mixing with rough children behind the camera. Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who write, direct, produce and generally lead astray, have been seen whispering to them between takes.

Russell Brand is a highly original, attractive, instinctive comedian. In all seriousness, what else could he do in life? He is much safer making jokes than driving a bus.

Amid death and gambling addiction, Sunshine managed to be remarkably happy

Bernard Hill gave a simply magnificent performance as the dying grandfather in Sunshine (BBC1), against some formidable scene-stealers - Steve Coogan suddenly taking off like a firework and Dominic Senior giving one of those gradely little-lad performances that are such an irritation to grizzled actors.

What a sinful joy, therefore, to meet the incorrigibly optimistic American tourists we all know and avoid in the last Harry and Paul (BBC1). The British caff was so quiet you could hear the cheese curling.

Comedy Classics: Rising Damp (ITV1) was, of course, a celebration of Leonard Rossiter. Thirty years on, Rigsby is still a breathtaking performance. Beside him, everybody else seems to be standing still.

A dinosaur was the star turn of The Wrong Door, an entertaining new sketch show set, for lack of a more plausible explanation, in a parallel universe. Mum, Dad, Nan, this is Philip, says Melanie, introducing her new boyfriend. Philip is a Tyrannosaurus Rex, who devours the family dachshund. No one mentions that he is a reptile. Well, you don't, do you? Philip will, I hope, be a recurring delight.

Personally, I liked the robot. Where, he roared in a towering temper, beheading skyscrapers and peering into their innards, were his fucking keys? Denis Norden once said that, if he could find his spectacles in the morning, that was happiness enough for one day.

Why did no one tell the makers of The Invisibles that comedy capers need jokes?

Did no one in the seasoned cast have a queasy feeling about the script? Or notice the absence of jokes in a comedy caper? Next time you are in a pub, try to get a laugh with: Port and brandy - nature's amoxicillin! Try even to say it.

Hancock and Joan (BBC4) was not worthy of him. So much in his last spiralling years was not worthy of TV's greatest comedian.