Rebecca Front

The second series of this sharp sitcom - in which Simon Amstell plays an insecure version of himself - ends tonight with an episode involving Pinteresque levels of family squabbling and unfulfilled ambition. The problems begin when Simon learns that his latest theatrical venture - a role in a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest - is in jeopardy, and they're compounded by some wonderfully bitter infighting between Tanya (Rebecca Front) and Liz (Samantha Spiro).

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Simon's new career as an actor continues to proceed like snakes and ladders. This week, everything seems to be on the up.

He's being ­interviewed on BBC Breakfast about his new play and after that he's going to be Claudia Winkleman's guest on Radio 2. But a jokey remark about another guest backfires and he's slithering down the snake of infamy once again.

The namechecks for actual famous people being mixed in with Simon's fictional family feels completely normal now. I love the idea, for instance, that Simon has borrowed a large sum of money from Derren Brown.

But as his auntie Liz demands that they finally get around to reading her father's will, most of this week's best lines go to Simon's mum, Tanya, played by Rebecca Front. After finally splitting up with Clive, she's decided she's off sex for good.

It's not the actual decision that's so funny, so much as all the colourful ways she and her family come up with to describe it.

Things are looking up for Simon Amstell's character as tonight's episode of this sterling sitcom opens. He's back on television, much to the relief of Mum (Rebecca Front) - "I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep paying my own mortgage" - an interview on Radio 2 is on the cards, and a windfall from Granddad's will means he can finally move out to Hackney ("I'm going to be a cool artist person"). Meanwhile Liz (Samantha Spiro) is planning a charity quiz and threatens to get Simon involved.

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Simon Amstell's writing partner Dan Swimer has said there's unlikely to be a third series of Grandma's House, which would be a huge pity.

But like Fawlty Towers which also left us wanting more, tonight's episode has the real whiff of comedy legend about it.

As the tension is gradually cranked up throughout the half-hour, the payoff is an absolutely classic scene which deserves to be repeated in comedy clip shows for years to come.

Simon, of Never Mind the Buzzcocks fame, is in rehearsals for the opening of his play and is worried (with very good reason) that his limited acting skills won't stretch to crying on cue.

And there are subtle nods here to Simon's obsessively healthy eating habits as well as his less angelic habit of ripping into celebrities.

But it's also his mother's birthday and she has decided to book herself a stripper.

Rebecca Front, who plays Tanya so perfectly, has an absolute whale of a time this week.

The sight of Tanya's birthday present to herself grimly gyrating around Grandma's three-piece suite in a fireman's outfit is enough to make you weep with laughter.

Simon Amstell's writing partner Dan Swimer has said there's unlikely to be a third series of Grandma's House, which would be a huge pity.

But like Fawlty Towers which also left us wanting more, tonight's episode has the real whiff of comedy legend about it.

As the tension is gradually cranked up throughout the half-hour, the payoff is an absolutely classic scene which deserves to be repeated in comedy clip shows for years to come.

Simon, of Never Mind the Buzzcocks fame, is in rehearsals for the opening of his play and is worried (with very good reason) that his limited acting skills won't stretch to crying on cue.

And there are subtle nods here to Simon's obsessively healthy eating habits as well as his less angelic habit of ripping into celebrities. But it's also his mother's birthday and she has decided to book herself a stripper.

Rebecca Front, who plays Tanya so perfectly, has an absolute whale of a time this week. The sight of Tanya's birthday present to herself grimly gyrating around Grandma's three-piece suite in a fireman's outfit is enough to make you weep with laughter.

This knowing, beautifully nuanced sitcom reaches the halfway mark in its second series. Wannabe actor Simon (star and creator Simon Amstell) lands the role of Ariel in a new production of The Tempest, so he tries to learn how to cry on command. Elsewhere in his ever-chaotic family, Grandma (Linda Bassett) struggles to come to terms with Grandpa's death, and mother Tanya (The Thick Of It's excellent Rebecca Front) prepares a surprise for her own birthday, while her hapless fiancé Clive (James Smith) comes round in the loft after a heavy drinking session.