Roy Clarke

This can't fail: Roy Clarke's prequel to his own Keeping Up Appearances adds Heartbeat-ish period charm to the formula of social ambition undone by pride and pratfalls. Hyacinth is a 19-year-old in the 1950s, desperate to drag her family out of their humble existence. Of course it's weak beer but Kerry Howard is brilliant in the lead, nailing her character's wobbly attempt to put on an RP accent and expertly hinting at Patricia Routledges manic intonation.

Young Hyacinth preview

Routledge herself has been scathing about the project, saying: 'Why are they doing this sort of thing? They must be desperate.' Though with Keeping Up Appearances being the BBC's top export, you can understand the 'why' very easily, even if there's unlikely to be little clamour for this prequel.

TV preview: Young Hyacinth, BBC1

In some ways this is the most interesting of the current Landmark Sitcom Season reboots, in some ways it is the least interesting.

Roy Clarke on the real life Hyacinth Buckets

Roy Clarke, the creator of Keeping Up Appearances, explains Hyacinth's enduring and global appeal...

Radio Times review

It's easy to see why Roy Clarke's revival of his much-loved Ronnie Barker comedy Open All Hours is such a blazing hit. It takes its audience back to comfortable times, when being from Yorkshire was inherently funny, when men were hapless fools, women were either battleaxes or well-upholstered sirens and when everyone loved a bit of mild smut.

There isn't a mean bone in Still Open All Hours's body as grown men have silly fun with an over-sized Christmas tree, a sinister one-eyed Santa mannequin and a trampoline. Parsimonious local shopkeeper Granville (David Jason) remains at the mercy of the supernaturally self-operating till and the terrifying women get all the best lines. "How long since you were in curlers on a Wednesday afternoon?" wonders flinty Mrs Featherstone of comely Gladys Emmanuel.

Radio Times review

Much like Granville's sandwiches, the jokes are definitely past their sell-by date, but viewers don't seem to mind in the slightest that the laughs come from men wearing dresses or libidinous pensioners. Six million watched this revisit of Roy Clarke's 1970s sitcom on a Sunday night recently, more than saw Foyle's War or Last Tango in Halifax.

Arkwright's latest scheme is inspired by a visit from a travelling salesman (Mark Williams), who's flogging a soothing linctus "that also cleans your brass and silver". It makes the canny grocer realise that he needs a gimmick if he's to shift the batch of Old Mother Hemlock's Ancient Remedies he's bought.

Radio Times review

Writer Roy Clarke's revisiting of the beloved Ronnie Barker vehicle is completely timeless, which is doubtless part of its appeal. There are no crude 21st-century technological innovations in that little corner shop in Yorkshire, it could be set in any year from the 1930s.

There's also a pervading feeling of a cosy community of the type that probably either doesn't exist or never did exist, as a series of oddballs passes through the doors of Arkwright's stores. Mrs Dawlish (Vicki Pepperdine) is the comedy nuisance here, a snobby local who's taken aback that such an old-fashioned corner shop is still flourishing.

But there are signs that Granville (David Jason) is modernising - he wants to open a coffee shop!

Christmas TV schedule 2014: the best comedy to watch

There are countless seasonal episodes of sitcoms, including Cuckoo (BBC3), Man Down (Channel 4), House of Fools (BBC2), Stella (Sky1) Mrs Brown's Boys and Not Going Out (both BBC1), while Still Open All Hours returns for fans of David Jason and Roy Clarke's nostalgic paean to old-fashioned general stores. Otherwise...