Nancy Banks-Smith

Corbett and Brambell worked together like a couple of knives sharpening each other. Jason Isaacs and Phil Davis, particularly Phil Davis (so natty, neat and tippy-toes, so cut glass, behatted and buttoned up), were striking, like Walter Matthau and George Burns in The Odd Couple, that classically incompatible double act. In every double act, fate stands in the wings with a sledgehammer.

Extras attacked celebrity - with a little help from George Michael, David Tennant et al

There is a lot to be said for corsets. This extra-special episode of Extras (BBC1) did go on a bit. Quite a lot. Virtually indefinitely. Like joy it was unconfined but, oddly, not at all joyful.

Oddly enough, Jessica Hynes also wrote and starred in Learners (BBC1, Sunday), and roped in another star in spectacles, David Tennant. This worked much better as television, though it was so slight that you could have - you were positively tempted to - poked a small hole in it with your little finger.

The golden-haired Karen (Ramona Marquez) sounds like a high-court judge with a speech impediment. She poses questions that would floor Pythagoras - "Do you believe in God?" "Do foxes go to heaven?" "Are atoms made out of atoms?" - with great solemnity, insistence and incoherence. All of which, being a liberal, honest, besotted man, her father tries to answer logically.

Outnumbered (BBC1) is a new family comedy by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who wrote Drop the Dead Donkey. The novelty is that the parents are scripted but the children are improvising. Think traffic. The parents, being cars, obey the rules. The children, being cycles, go where their fancy takes them. The chances of road rage are, therefore, promising.

Women of a certain rage

I like looking over the shoulders of Grumpy Old Women (BBC2) at their fluffy cushions. Grumpy old women seem to prefer being interviewed at home unlike grumpy old men.

In The Thick of It Special, all things seemed possible - even the Cillit Bang guy as PM.

The Thick of It Special: Spinners and Losers (BBC4) is a savoury mix of humiliation, abuse, terror, male genitalia and the comic possibilities of the word "fuck". The script sounds the way a goose looks taking off, funny and off the cuff.

Children across the land rejoice! Shaun the Sheep has landed his very own show ...

Shaun the Sheep (BBC1) is the result of his observations. I can confirm that it hits the four-to-seven-year-old age group smack in the eye.

The Vicar of Dibley (BBC1) is gone for good. She'll come no more. Never, never, never, never. Never mind, we get to keep Dawn French, a joyful creature and a world-class clown.

The Worst Christmas Of My Life (BBC1), a farce that runs on three nights, makes the seasonal assumption that you've had a couple and are easily pleased.