Rasmus Hardiker

Jack Dee's Rick Spleen is back for another series of suburban angst and tonight he's trying to write his first novel.

He's also desperately trying to make his family seem more interesting than they really are when a magazine comes to interview his partner Mel (Raquel Cassidy) for an "at home with...".

The most interesting thing about Mel and Rick is that they're still together despite having nothing in common.

Is there some mind-blowing sexual chemistry going on behind closed doors that we don't know about?

If so, I think we should be told. But what they need, Rick decides, is some exotic kind of pet - like a pig.

Like Rick's novel, the plot is a little short on inspiration, but the performances, especially from Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Rasmus Hardiker - as his teenage daughter Sam and boyfriend Ben - and Anna Crilly, as Magda, keep things ticking over.

Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise? Without much fanfare, Lead Balloon is coming back for a brand new series (the fourth!). If you've seen the show before, you'll pretty much know what to expect. Jack Dee's wonderful as grumpy, deluded Rick Spleen, who in this opening episode is trying to write a novel. Sure, that'll go well! Meanwhile, The Sunday Times wants to do a feature on his wife, which leads to some fabulously awkward scenes as Rick tries to get in on the action... with a pig. Of course, he still has Michael and Magda to contend with, as well as my favourites - his teenage daughter Sam and her boyfriend Ben, played to perfection by Antonia Campbell Hughes and Rasmus Hardiker.

Although it's easy to understand why Jack Dee's surly sitcom has survived to a third series, you need an electron microscope to find the humour in it these days.

And now that Rick's daughter Sam (played by Antonia Campbell-Hughes) and boyfriend Ben (Rasmus Hardiker) have inexplicably stopped their weekly demands for money, the best bit of the show each week (apart from Magda, obviously) is turning out to be the pre-title sequence when we see Rick at work.