Paul Whitehouse

While there's no doubting the ability of Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield to do silly voices and funny impressions, their knack for writing fresh, original ideas is far less reliable these days. Following a tired Dragon's Den sketch with an overlong Question Time skit reeks of laziness and lack of adventure, as does the return of the likes of Parking Pataweyo (cor, bloody parking attendants, eh?). While there are a host of 'different' characters, many are just minor variations on the 'overly posh' theme, with each caricatured incarnation identifiable solely by a costume change and a negligible shift in accent. The procession of mediocrity can't even be saved by Kevin Eldon, which doesn't bode well. If anything's going to raise a titter here, it's more likely to stem from a word said in a slightly funny way than from a great gag or smart idea.

They're now more classic than cutting edge, but it's good to have Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse back for a fourth series of their sketch show. Tonight they revisit old ground (their spoof of Dragons' Den) and break out some new characters. Victoria Wood joins in for a dig at the minor royals, and there is a send-up of Question Time.

Tell me if you find this funny: murder squad detectives make a grisly find and can't stop vomiting: on the corpse, everywhere. The crime scene is a mess and still one of them says: "We'll need blood and hair samples." Then his buddy says: "Breakfast?" I didn't find it funny, not during the first of the new sketch show Cardinal Burns, but now I'm less inclined to call for the return of Horne & Corden which, let's face it, would have been disastrous. There was one genius skit: radical street-artist Banksy as a suburban drongo who buys his spray-paint from Homebase and gets stuck on tiny ladders. But the funniest sketch show on the box isn't a show at all: it's those insurance ads featuring the many faces of Paul Whitehouse.

I love a spoof documentary, me. Not, you understand, of the nonsensical Life's Too Short variety, but rather those spot-on parodies of pop culture epochs such as Eric Idle's magnificent Beatles spoof, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, and Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's criminally underrated Smashie and Nicey: End of an Era.

As well as being packed with exquisite gags, those mock-docs worked so beautifully because of their loving attention to detail, proving that the very best parodies are made by those who know their subject inside out. And while Peter Capaldi's the Cricklewood Greats doesn't quite reach such giddy heights, it certainly delivers in terms of affectionate irreverence and the care with which it's made.

Charting the wavering fortunes of a fictional British film studio - think Ealing by way of Hammer, and all stops in between - it functions not only as an impressively realised parody of the average BBC 4 entertainment documentary, but also of those insight-free films in which a celebrity hijacks an interesting subject in pursuit of their own meaningless "personal journey."

Written in conjunction with his The Thick Of It cohort Tony Roche - who also penned BBC 4's splendid Python biopic, Holy Flying Circus - Capaldi directs and also stars as himself, paying overly-reverential tribute to the ghosts of the Cricklewood dream factory, including thinly disguised versions of Gracie Fields, Peter Cushing and Kenneth Williams (the acutely observed pastiches of his withering diary entries are a particular highlight).

No "tears behind the laughter" cliché is left unturned in this modest treat for connoisseurs of archive film and television, which, although merely amusing rather than hilarious, is still witty and charming and thoroughly commendable.

A new series, sir? Did she want it, sir? - Interview

Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson talk about getting older and why they decided to make a new series of The Fast Show - but not for the BBC.

Fast Show stars blame panel shows for killing TV comedy

The reunited cast of The Fast Show - including Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Caroline Aherne and John Thomson - have claimed that British comedy is being stifled by the number of panel shows on television.

There are few laughs in John Landis's ghoulish historical comedy - perhaps only one proper when Paul Whitehouse stumbles on. Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis are desperately unfunny as they try to make a go of the corpse-collection business for their patron, Dr Knox (Tom Wilkinson). Disappointing, given Pegg's comic flair and a fine cast including Isla Fisher.

The most surprising gong of the night at this year's Bafta TV awards was the comedy programme prize which went to BBC2 sketch show Harry & Paul. This is the show, you will remember which was not entirely warmly welcomed by critics. The win will also have come as a surprise to the programme's two stars, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, who were otherwise engaged and unable to make the ceremony, and to BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow, who has not yet commissioned another series of the now Bafta-winning show. Busy diaries to blame, apparently. "It's early days," says a BBC insider. "Should know more in the next couple of weeks hopefully." Ruddy hell indeed.