Patrick Smith (I)

Flowers, episode 1 and 2, review

Rejoice as this melancholy curio blooms once again.

Elijah Wood interview: 'British comedy is wittier'

Ahead of starring in Netflix's new Dirk Gently series, the Hollywood actor talks about why he thinks British comedy beats its US equivalent.

Tracey Ullman: 'This PC stuff can be really sanitising'

As she returns with her first UK TV show in over 30 years, Tracey Ullman talks to Patrick Smith about un-PC comedy and women being in charge.

W1A, series 2, episode 3, review

This BBC send-up is packed with zinging one-liners reeled off with terrific comic timing.

Misfits: series 5, review

Misfits, E4's Asbo superheroes drama, is inventive and zesty but still a show in transition, says Patrick Smith.

Imagine John Lennon never existed - at least, not the John Lennon we know. Snodgrass, a one-off drama adapted from Ian R MacLeod's novella by David Quantick, envisions a parallel world in which Lennon walked out of The Beatles in 1962 over "musical differences". Consequently, the Fab Four only ever achieved moderate success and Lennon - who never moved to New York - survived into middle age.
Taking place in 1991, 11 years after Lennon was murdered, this is a tale of missed opportunities and regret; the Lennon presented here is 50 years old, unemployed and embittered. Someone who could have had it all but wound up on the dole, a real nowhere man. It's a fascinating drama: playful, sharp and bristling with mordant one-liners.
Anchoring it all is the excellent Ian Hart, who's playing Lennon for the third time on film.

There's a winning blend of humour and pathos in his performance - especially when his character is on a bus, reeling off a stream of puns, jokes and diatribes. The message is clear: if this was John Lennon the rock legend, everyone on that bus would be hanging on his every word; here, though, he's just a misanthrope, ignored by the fellow passengers. This is part of the skill of Quantick's script - it makes you wonder whether dying at 40, a global icon, is better than still being alive but trapped in a humdrum existence, all too aware of what you might have been. The result is a heart-rending half-hour.

Joining Jonathan Ross in the studio tonight are London-born actress Hayley Atwell, who was recently seen in William Boyd's superlative drama Restless and is starring in Monday's Black Mirror, and Hollywood actor John C Reilly, whose CV ranges from the harrowing We Need to Talk About Kevin to the farcical Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Music comes from pop duo Hurts.

Jonathan Ross - who, depending on your taste, is either likeably energetic or irritatingly garrulous - is tonight joined by Australian actress Rose Byrne (Damages, Bridesmaids). She'll be discussing her role in the new British romcom I Give It a Year. In the studio, too, are comedian Adam Hills, whose news review show The Last Leg has become a cult hit, and entertainer Jools Holland. Music comes from Alicia Keys.

Though its fourth season has been its least impressive, Armando Iannucci's political satire will none the less go down as one of the best ever British comedies: sharp and cynical. Tonight, after last Saturday's excellent Leveson and Chilcot-inspired special, it finally bows out, with an instalment overflowing with delicious duplicity and inventive insults - not least from Malcom Tucker (the ever-wonderful Peter Capaldi) who gives Ollie Reader (Chris Addison) a hilarious dressing down.

The episode picks up with the Home Office having cut police numbers, which in turn has created a huge backlog of arrest paperwork. Cleverly, however, they've managed to shift the blame onto the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship for the burgeoning queues at police stations. "I doubt there are any major criminals on the loose," says Phil Smith (Will Smith). "This is about paperwork; it's not Con Air." Elsewhere, Dan Miller (Tony Gardner), at Malcolm's suggestion, is sent on a fact-finding mission to a police station in an attempt to make the Government look unresponsive. To say any more about the plot would give too much away, but viewers can expect a climax that is as poignant as it is amusing.

He may not be to everyone's taste but there's no doubting that Jonathan Ross can still attract the big names. Tonight, the ebullient chat show host is joined by tough-guy actor Ray Winstone, who discusses his new film The Sweeney. F1 driver Jenson Button and actress Suranne Jones - who stars in Charlie Brooker's spoof A Touch of Cloth, which starts on Sunday - are also in the studio. The music comes from R'n'B girl group Stooshe.