Rebecca Front

In the hit-and-miss Woman's Hour 15-Minute Drama slot, this was a jolly show, though it can occasionally seem a little like Rebecca Front's audition tape: "Listen! You don't always have to cast me as a decent, plucky, middle-England type! I can do accents!" And I'd have put this series' episodes in a different order: her first character, Danielle Simmons, a TV reality show star, is a character that has been overdone, and Front's vocal mannerisms were reminiscent of Catherine Tate's. (Can we ban all "satire" about reality shows now, please? There's nothing more to say.) Other characters, such as reluctant whistleblower Helen McKee and equestrian Annabel de Lacy, were more offbeat and better for it. This is all a bit picky, by the way: Incredible Women has a warmth and charm that keeps you listening, as well as lovely writing, so give it a go.

Radio Times review

If you're settling down for a relaxing half-hour of gentle entertainment, this isn't it. In fact it's likely to make your blood pressure soar. Pete's in charge of the Brockman brood for the day while Sue's struggling to organise a conference call at work... and yes, that's Harry Shearer (from The Simpsons) on the computer screen.

And on this day Karen's in trouble with her head teacher (Rebecca Front delivering a startling line about Roald Dahl), Ben's lost his mobile, Jake's lost his Oyster card and Pete's lost the plot, trying to juggle these problems by shouting into an aged mobile.

Anyone whose train of thought has been derailed by the tangential mind of a teenager will relate to Pete's exasperation, while many women will experience a familiar feeling of dread when he pompously announces "Just leave it all to me!"

Rebecca Front interview

Rebecca Front, star of The Thick of It and the BBC's forthcoming adaptation of PD James's Death Comes To Pemberley, talks about her therapy to help overcome claustrophobia.

Radio Times review

The thinness of the series' premise is exposed in this week's two stories. It's always a delight listening to Rebecca Front and Kevin Eldon weaving their magic in the reader's chair, but their tales aren't particularly inspiring. Toby Davies's story of what happens when a writer of erotic thrillers finds a lost Shakespearean manuscript in his attic feels forced, while Eldon's parable about gratitude plays like a menacing Mr Men and is graced by a performance by The Thick of It's Alex Macqueen - the very personification of Mr Uppity.

Outnumbered series 5 - what's new?

The Thick of It's Rebecca Front will make a guest appearance when the growing Brockman family return to our screens in early 2014.

Love him or hate him, James Corden undeniably does have a range of talents - actor, writer and co-creator of some very funny comedy (we'll politely forget the car crash of his misguided BBC sketch show with Mathew Horne). And now, dontchaknow, he's come up with another comedy vehicle, The Wrong Mans (****), which had a very accomplished debut last night.

Corden, late of the National Theatre and Broadway, has co-written, with fellow Gavin & Stacey alumnus Mathew Baynton, a comedy thriller in the style of Simon Pegg and Joe Wright's Cornetto trilogy, with appreciative nods (in the title) to Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller and, in camerawork and misfit leads, to Peep Show.

Baynton is nice but weedy Sam, who wakes up one wintry morning with the mother of a hangover, only to find his pushbike has been stolen so he has to walk to work, as a town planning and noise guidance adviser for Berkshire County Council. On his way, he's the only witness to a car crash and he picks up a ringing phone; a man issues threats and in later calls it's clear a woman has been kidnapped.

At work Sam takes postboy Phil (Corden) into his confidence. Phil is beside himself; he's a 31-year-old living at home with his mum and he keeps trying to organise fun days paint-balling or bowling with his colleagues (oblivious to the fact they all think he's a boring knob); for him, this mystery is his very own live-action Grand Theft Auto, and he convinces Sam not to call the police but to try to rescue the woman and become heroes.

The opening episode efficiently essayed the set-up, and there are some promising relationships to be explored in the following five weeks. Sarah Solemani (who was so brilliant in Him & Her) is Sam's boss, but also the girlfriend who recently dumped him because he was too needy, while Tom Basden is the horrible colleague we'd love to be taken down a peg or two.

Corden clearly has pulling power, as those names above suggest, and Dawn French, Nick Moran, Rebecca Front and Dougray Scott will appear in future episodes - although David Harewood, who appeared briefly last night, shot his scenes before his Homeland stardom. The opener had some neat twists and turns and ended on a great cliffhanger. Definitely one to stay with.

This new comedy drama written by and starring James Corden and Horrible Histories' Mathew Baynton is quite good. What's remarkable is the wealth of on-screen talent involved, and I don't just mean Dawn French, Rebecca Front, Nick Moran, Homeland's David Harewood and Him & Her's Sarah Solemani. When you can employ Paul Higgins (The Thick of It) and Twenty Twelve's Vincent Franklin in the seemingly throwaway roles of traffic cops, then that is casting in depth. Taking its title from Hitchcock's 1956 thriller of mistaken identity, The Wrong Man, it stars Baynton as a Berkshire County Council office drudge accidentally mixed up in a criminal conspiracy. Corden is on his best form as his excitable colleague.

Spoofing action-filled, big budget American TV series, The Wrong Mans is both sitcom and thriller. Created by and starring James Corden and Matthew Bayton, as a luckless duo working for Berkshire County Council whose blue-collar lives are turned upside down by a chance phone call. Mistaken identities prompt comic mishap as they are drawn into a murky world of international espionage. The supporting cast includes Dawn French, Sarah Solemani, Rebecca Front, Dougray Scott, Emilia Fox, Nick Moran, Stephen Campbell Moore and Tom Basden - the very Best of British.

Psychobitches (Sky Atlantic) finished its first series last night (following last year's pilot), and anyone who says television doesn't make inventive programmes any more should watch it.

Set in the office of a modern-day female psychiatrist, who is confronted by some of history's most famous, unusual or bonkers women, it is surreal, but gloriously different.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the idea was pitched. "We'll have Eva Braun going to see the psychiatrist, and Joan of Arc, of course... Funny? Yes, of course it'll be funny! I know - we'll have Mother Theresa too. Hilarious!"
And, unlikely as it might seem, it works.

The characterisations are as inspired as they are off-the-wall. Last night, Sam Spiro gave an hilarious rendition of Jackie Kennedy as a female version of Columbo the detective, and Zawe Ashton played a madly feline Eartha Kitt. Frances Barber's over-the-top version of Catherine the Great was annoying but Harry Enfield gave a brilliant impersonation of "Mrs Alfred Hitchcock" looking disturbingly like Mr Alfred Hitchcock dressed in women's clothes. And Julia Davis was beautifully ditzy as Mary Pickford, the silent film star. "That's seven times now," she complained to the psychiatrist, "that men have tied me to railway tracks..."

The scripts (by a team of writers) are clever, but the whole thing is held together by Rebecca Front, who plays the psychiatrist with a perfect mixture of assurance and bafflement. I know that Olivia Colman has been officially anointed as the nation's new favourite actress, but for my money Rebecca Front is up there. From The Day Today through Alan Partridge, The Thick of It and Lewis to Psychobitches, she is always excellent.