Russell Watson

After an assured debut in 2010, this was the year that Simon Amstell and Dan Swimer's housebound sitcom really hit its stride. Amstell was still not the greatest actor in the world, but he was playing such an awkward version of himself it didn't matter. He'd also surrounded himself with great characters, played by great actors (Rebecca Front, James Smith, Samantha Spiro, Linda Bassett). While being audaciously self-referential - Amstell's ill-advised joke about Russell Watson's brain tumour on BBC Breakfast was used as a plot device - it was ultimately warm-hearted, with deft scripting that skipped from lunacy to poignancy without missing a beat.

It's the penultimate episode of Simon Amstell's meta-comedy, which this week weaves his real-life Russell Watson incident - a joke on breakfast TV about the focus on the opera singer's tumour - into the plot. Simon's plans to move out suffer yet another setback, while Samantha Spiro continues to steal the show as hilariously grotesque Auntie Liz.

Has Radio 2 missed the style train with its line-up today? Here's a celebrity-based panel show in which comedians and commentators vie to come up with gossipy quips about showbiz personalities.

Somehow all of those ingredients sound a bit past their sell-by date these days. After a decade of chitterchat by so-called entertainers about nonentities, not to mention public enquiries into the dodgy provenance of some of the gossip in the past, it all feels a bit stale. But, who knows?

Maybe Claudia Winkleman, hosting, can raise a little glitter from Andrew Maxwell, Katy Brand and Russell Watson.

Simon Amstell stuns presenters with tumour joke

Comic Simon Amstell stunned BBC Breakfast presenters by cracking a joke about Russell Watson's brain tumour while the singer waited off-camera to be interviewed.