Peter Capaldi

Virtue has been rewarded with a return to the schedules for BBC4's dark and unglamorous hospital comedy Getting On, launched last year with three superbly measured episodes of low-key wit and broad hilarity. Who (of the 19 people who saw it) can forget the fun had with the self-important Dr Moore's faecal stool research programme or the eloquently brief wrangling over the ethics of eating a dead woman's birthday cake, or those oases of tedium, ticking with wicked purpose.

The first thing I noticed, though - even as the great Richard Hawley title song lulled us into the new series - was how healthily Daz blue everything looked. Here came the familiar cameras, zooming and retreating in homage to The Thick of It (courtesy of director Peter Capaldi), but where was the bilious washed-out decor and bad complexions and air of neglect? Had the MRSA police been in with the Mr Muscle and a lick of paint? Had someone been ironing the uniforms?

It soon began to ooze some of the old malodorous promise with the arrival of a comatose female of no fixed abode smelling like "an every-orifice cocktail", as dogsbody nurse Kim (mistress of droll, Jo Brand) put it, vying with ward sister Den (Joanna Scanlan) for best evocative observation of human pungency. Something was rotten down there...

There was more laughter to be milked out of it with the entrance of no-nonsense consultant Dr Moore (the excellent Vicki Pepperdine), blind to preposterousness as she urged her retinue of horrified dimwit trainees to peer into the poor woman's back passage and see a valuable learning opportunity. "So... perineal abscess? Rectal prolapse? Anal fistulae?" It was funny, but it did start to dribble away into a dull scene about the new gerontology wing, only to be picked up again by Donald the porter, trying to offload the offending patient on other unwilling departments, his gurney journeying back and forth with diminishing comic power. By the time he parked it in the corridor the only smell I could detect was the new lino.

To be fair there were entertaining skirmishes but they lacked the friction that gave the last series its crackling energy. Den has lost her fear of the officious Dr Moore. Sexually bi-curious matron Hilary - a monster of neuroses held in check by self-help psychobabble - has been stripped of his menace (like Samson before him, I believe) by the blowjob Den gave him in the back of a taxi. And where were the delicious lingual infelicities, the absurdities of NHS jargon, the workplace correctness that left Kim floundering in useless common sense - the whole pickle of moral compromise without which drama can be neither funny nor tragic? Perhaps it will all be back next week. I hope so.

Jo Brand and Peter Capaldi Interview

Director Peter Capaldi and star Jo Brand tell Adam Sweeting how their superb hospital sitcom Getting On sees the funny side of death.

The ailing government is spiralling into the abyss and Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) is both waving and drowning when he tries to charm a group of journalists with his customary bravado. There's a real sense of panic in the penultimate episode of the skin-piercing satire. The arrival at DOSAC of Steve Fleming (a terrifying David Haig), Malcolm's bête noir and fellow spinner, has pitched everyone into chaos. There's something almost frightening about The Thick of It when it's this intense, and when Fleming and Tucker have a titanic, foul-mouthed battle, be afraid.

The News at Bedtime is a brilliant Today show spoof by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman which went out at Christmas and rather got lost in the nation's annual drowse. Catch up now as John Tweedledum (Jack Dee) and Jim Tweedledee (Peter Capaldi) present the latest from the land of nursery rhymes. It is so funny you can hear each episode five times (thanks to the marvellous iPlayer) and still find new things to laugh at (thanks to producer Simon Nicholls).

How's this for a hot comedy concept for 2010 - a spoof news programme taking its inspiration from old nursery rhymes and songs? Do me a favour. Amazingly though, The News at Bedtime kind of works, thanks to some very sharp writing and the presentational skills of Jack Dee and Peter Capaldi as anchormen Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

You get a breaking story about police surrounding the Three Bears' house: "Put the spoon down Goldilocks and nobody will get hurt," while Mummy Bear tells the reporter earnestly: "I'm sure she didn't mean any harm, but it's not going to bring our porridge back, is it?"

Jack Spratt, sounding horribly like Jamie Oliver, puts the case against child obesity, while the Tooth Fairy stands up for sugary snacks. Capaldi gives an eyewitness account of the Cow Jumping Over the Moon - "one small jump for a cow, one giant leap for cowkind" - and asks if anyone has any relish or even a beer as the cow burns up on re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

The source material isn't going to mean a lot to the younger generation, but to anyone over 40, this clever deconstruction of rhymes and songs we learnt as kids ought to raise a chuckle or two.

News at Bedtime was Ian Hislop and Nick Newman's dazzling satire on current affairs culture, featuring twin presenters John Tweedledum (played by Jack Dee) and Jim Tweedledee (Peter Capaldi) broadcasting from Nurseryland. You wouldn't need to be a Today aficionado to find this series a delight. There was the crooked man defending himself against allegations of corruption: "It's not a crooked sixpence John. I found it next to a stile. It's perfectly acceptable for me to claim as an allowance." The Grand Old Duke of York was on defending his military action - "You launched an ill-thought out, ill-conceived and legally dubious assault on the hill". There was the Daily Fairygraph, owned by the Brothers Grimm, and Jonathan Porridge from Beanpeace protesting against Jack's genetically modified beanstalk. All of it was pitch perfect, totally inventive and very funny.

Anyone with fond memories of Chris Morris's dearly loved news spoof On The Hour could do far worse than tune into this comic version of the Today programme penned by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. Starring a first-rate cast of British comedy talent, helmed by Jack Dee and Peter Capaldi, The News At Bedtime is an almost hypnologic take on the conventions of a modern radio news programme, which presents streams of dreamlike absurdity with a staunchly straight face. While the content is a little silly at times, comedy fans and news junkies will still find plenty to enjoy.

The News at Bedtime (R4, 6.15pm) tries a new tack. Jack Dee and Peter Capaldi, as Jack Tweedledum and Jim Tweedledee, are argumentive anchormen in a world where Humpty Dumpty really has had a great fall. Written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. If you're up late making stuffing or doing wrapping here's some kitchen company.

Watch The News at Bedtime

The News At Bedtime is a Radio 4 news programme with a fairytale twist written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman and presented by John Tweedledum and Jim Tweedledee (Jack Dee and Peter Capaldi).

As our real-life Government entered what are quite possibly its death throes, so did the fictitious government in Armando Iannucci's uproarious political sitcom. Rebecca Front arrived to play a hand-wringing minister but the focal point was, as ever, Peter Capaldi's vicious spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker. Weirdly, Tucker's sacking in the penultimate episode proved one of the saddest moments on TV this year.