Richard Wilson (I)

Richard Wilson stars in John Langdon's comedy, playing Frank who used to be a Latin teacher and once was married but has now become a mini-cab driver. Even worse, he's working for his ex-wife Barbara, who's the cab controller, and her husband who owns the firm. No wonder Frank is looking for another way to earn a living. There are two reasons to think this must be a good script. First, Wilson doesn't do rubbish. Second, John Langdon is an accomplished writer who worked for Punch and was on the team of The News Quiz when it was still worth listening to.

Portrait of the artist: Richard Wilson, actor

'I soon realised that "I don't believe it" would be the price I had to pay for One Foot in the Grave's success'.

Incredibly, this is the 20th anniversary and the 39th series of the BBC's flagship entertainment programme - the only entertainment programme that is consistently and genuinely entertaining. Paul Merton's unstoppable flow of surreal invention never seems to dry up, while Ian Hislop must be one of the few people on the planet who can appear on television suffering from a burst appendix and still manage to be funny. With an election looming, the big challenge of the new series - according to Richard Wilson, head of comedy at the production company Hat Trick - will be "to take the spectacularly dull things that politicians say and get laughs out of them". The host tonight is Lee Mack, with Alexander Armstrong and Jo Brand booked to appear later in the run.

Rab's Return

He's off the booze and Mary Doll has her own cleaning business in a cracking Christmas special.