Ricky Gervais

Character comedian David Earl has popped up in Extras, Derek and Cemetery Junction, so it's no surprise that Ricky Gervais acts as executive producer on his 4Funnies pilot. Earl plays Brian Gittins - an oddball, gravel-voiced minicab driver - who means well but is a little creepy. This Gittins is a toned-down version of a character who's been a regular fixture on the live circuit (albeit as a café owner rather than cabbie) for Earl. We follow Gittins's car journeys: awkward flirting with colleague Cheryl over the taxi's radio, dating advice from his daughter and conversations with eccentric passengers. Earl's performance is subtle and generous to his supporting cast. The set-ups can be a little clumsy - 'Right Dad, I'm on Google,' his daughter says to establish one scene, before slowly reading out exactly what she's typing - and the half-hour's more likely to induce giggles rather than belly laughs. But it has its moments, with Seb Cardinal's cameo as an Irish passenger obsessed with the volume of dog mess abroad being a highlight: 'My whole memory of Holland was a country jam-packed with dogshit.'

Radio Times review

Social networks always angrily announce that each new TV comedy is a hateful waste of airtime whose creators' cameras should be confiscated. Eventually, they were right. The justly derided Kookyville (Sunday C4) used the constructed reality format of The Only Way Is Essex - real people having real conversations, but clearly prompted, marshalled and heavily edited by the producers - and found a way to make it twenty times more grubby.

TOWIE, Made in Chelsea, Geordie Shore and the rest might have plenty of comic moments, but the audience normally like and take an interest in the participants, even if the programme-makers view them as tacky/posh/lairy scum.

Kookyville lost any pretence of following people's lives and presented the most ignorant and uncouth volunteers it could find around the country, carefully showing them in snippets at their worst, for smug laughs. It was presented as a comedy but relied on its stars not thinking they were in one, so the exploitation was obvious and painful.

This goading was depressingly cynical, but what made Kookyville a stinker for the ages was the frequency of ickily insensitive comments about minorities. Isn't it funny when people think it's OK to, for instance, tell an anecdote about a Thalidomide victim falling and not being able to right himself? As we already told Ricky Gervais: actually, no it isn't, and your decision to focus on this stuff is unfortunate at best. From the lazily awful title down, Kookyville felt like it had been designed to make the world just a little bit worse. Culturally, we were another inch towards armageddon.

DVD review: Life's Too Short

Life's Too Short, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, is clever series with a whole host of guest appearances to savour, including one Johnny Depp.

It's fair to say Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse have overmined the black-and-white movie seam in the latest series of Harry & Paul. But I'll happily forgive them that particular obsession. Because their gutting of Ricky Gervais last Sunday was as merciless as their On The Buses meets Sherlock sketch was inspired. If you're quick you might still catch them on iPlayer.

Tonight there's the painful sight of Harry and Paul not just missing a comedy open goal but skying the ball into row Z. They open with a sketch making fun at the expense of Ricky Gervais, mocking his sheepish grins, his self-conscious looks to camera and so on. But the impressions are nowhere near good enough, so instead of our biggest comedy star getting taken down a peg or two by a pair of elder statesmen, it all rings a bit hollow. Shame.

Elsewhere, I Saw You Coming has opened an artisan bakery and the posh surgeons, Charles and Sheridan, discuss video games.

More old-style sniggers from Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, the best of which come in the opening sketch in which the duo reimagine themselves as Ricky Gervais clones, with a "celebrity" appearance by UKIP leader Nigel Farage. It's a mixed bag, but a mirthful moment comes with Sherlock Holmes as seen through the lens of On the Buses.

Ricky Gervais to host 'Saturday Night Live'?

Ricky Gervais will reportedly host an upcoming Saturday Night Live.

From the Friday vault: Hardware with Martin Freeman

Martin Freeman's stock is going through the roof these days given his brilliant performance in Sherlock and, what I'm already assuming is brilliant in the upcoming Peter Jackson fantasy epic, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, as Bilbo Baggins. Many were 'introduced' to Martin back in 2001 as Tim in Ricky Gervais' The Office. Post Office, Freeman starred in Hardware, a short-lived situation comedy set in Hamway's Hardware Store in London.

Ricky Gervais replaced as Golden Globes host

Comic actress Tina Fey, famous for impersonating Sarah Palin, will host next year's Golden Globe awards in Beverly Hills. The decision, announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) on its official Twitter account, means acerbic Ricky Gervais will not be returning for a fourth time to skewer Hollywood's leading film and TV stars at the annual ceremony.

Ricky Gervais launches iPhone app

The actor-comedian announces his latest project, Just Sayin'.