Paul Copley

Sheridan Smith stars in a story that sees Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith departing radically from their usual claustrophobic black comedy; there is little to laugh at in The 12 Days Of Christine, a study of time and memory that resembles a short enigmatic arthouse film. In a dozen scenes coinciding with public or personal red-letter days, Smith plays a woman passing through marriage, motherhood, divorce and bereavement, with Paul Copley, Michele Dotrice, Tom Riley and the writers in supporting roles.

Alarming things keep happening to Christine, making her increasingly troubled and presenting the viewer with a series of puzzles. Why, for example, does the heroine's flatmate mention mathematical number theory? Why are we subjected to Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman warbling Time To Say Goodbye? Are these significant clues, or just red herrings?

The Flynns' front door is always open to northern actors willing to make cameo appearances, and this week's visitors are Beverley Callard and Paul Copley, playing Caroline's crass expat parents, Pat and Alan.

It's their wedding anniversary, they're home from Spain to celebrate, and poor Chloe is at the nasty end of Pat's observation that her mum and dad only got married to give her a surname. Cue a series of gloriously half-baked flashbacks to the Flynns' courtship - the pregnancy test, Liam's terrible curtains haircut - intended to reassure Chloe of their love. And amid the toilet humour, love is what In with the Flynns has got going for it. It's unusually warm.

Anne Reid, Paul Copley and Justin Moorhouse star in this new four-part sitcom by Moorhouse and Jim Poyser. Justin Moorhouse, naturally, plays Justin the successful, famous and outwardly upbeat Manchester DJ whose real life reflects a greyer reality. His mother is cranky, old and in a home. His wife has left him, taking their eight-year-old son and setting the lawyers on him. So he's back on the market. And so is his house. That's why he's living in his father-in-law's spare bedroom in Bury. The studio audience laughs loud, long and often.

Sharing a producer (Paul Hardy) with Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf, this 2007 Radio 4 sketch comedy written by and featuring Ian Potter also stars Paul Copley and Helen Moon. Featuring comedy concepts that utilise the radio medium to its full extent, it's an unusual but worthwhile listen. Fans of The Burkiss Way, should find themselves on familiarly unfamiliar ground.