Ruth Jones (I)

Radio Times review

Ultimately there's a good reason this show is called Stella and not, I don't know, Greetings from Pontyberry or some such. The ensemble are like a family we love seeing once a week, but the heart of the show is always Ruth Jones's creation. Her hopes and feelings are ours.

So this series is easy and uplifting because this year's upward-looking, bright blonde Stella is on form. This week, she and next-door neighbour Michael (Patrick Baladi) move closer, a slow courtship we'll be content to watch unfurl. It starts when she slams his fingers in his car bonnet.

Tonight's comic set piece is a Brenda's Buses trip to a nightclub, featuring two celebrity cameos: X Factor/Big Brother star Rylan Clark, and his teeth.

Approach any panel show that promises to put "wacky" facts to the test with caution. In this new series, host Lee Mack is joined by a celebrity panel comprising Ruth Jones, Dara O'Briain and Mel C, who brings to the table her claim that dog wee glows under UV light. Fortunately, a cute pack of puppies are on hand to test that particular theory. There are light laughs to be had and a few surprising titbits to be learned, and Mel C gets glued to the ceiling, so it's all quite entertaining, really.

Radio Times review

Lee Mack is a past master at the panel show game, but his new show is a very different beast from Would I Lie to You? It's a much looser, far less competitive affair in which guests propose some unbelievable facts - eg touching anyone's upper arm will help you get what you want from them - which are then put to the test.

Today's guests are Dara O'Briain, Ruth Jones and Melanie C, whose suggestions afford Mack the opportunity to show off his quicksilver wit - as well as the obligatory gag about the Spice Girls, he also deduces that the inside of Jones's mind is like a Disney film.

The best bits are those impromptu moments: Mack riffing about the baldness of a stagehand and an unexpected camera shot a lesser man would have left on the cutting-room floor.

Radio Times review

After some necessary spadework last week to set up the new series, now creator/star Ruth Jones pens one of the show's funniest ever episodes. Every scene brims with jokes, malapropisms ("Your dad is as strong as an egg!"), hilarious images and fruity phrasing. Aunty Brenda is in particularly searing form, struggling with her hippy daughter ("Me and 'er father split up when she was ten - she's been a road accident ever since"), questioning the integrity of the scales at Blubber Busters, and holding tense, tough negotiations with Dai about the launch of their new coach-hire company. Dai Davies, not Dai Cosh.

There's new blood, too: Sherlock star Yasmine Akram joins the cast as Jagadeesh and Tanisha's plain-speaking niece, while Jonathan Ross appears as himself in one of Stella's HRT-fuelled sex dreams.

The return of Ruth Jones's likeable but increasingly derivative comedy-drama about a single mum in small-town Wales. The house overflows with kids and grandkids while she trains to be a nurse; the ironing is backing up, and she's possibly having "the change". Meanwhile, Patrick Baladi's arrogant, recently divorced lawyer arrives in Pontyberry as the latest big-city-fish-out-of-water/obvious new love interest for Stella. They lock horns in a road-rage incident, ensuring they'll be doing it up against the Sharps built-in wardrobes by episode three.

Could this be third-season lucky-in-love for Welsh valley girl Stella? Ruth Jones is centre stage again in the warm-hearted comedy that returns tonight bathed in an optimistic glow. Stella's got herself a brilliant new job as a nurse and her fledglings are all back in the nest. The only thing that ails our Pontyberry lass is an acute case of singledom. Then again, a divorced lawyer (Patrick Baladi) has just pitched up next door, setting the scene for a spot of romcom sparring.

Radio Times review

Back into the light embrace of Pontyberry for a third series of Ruth Jones's comedy drama, which always manages to be comforting and inoffensive without being twee.

Stella (Jones herself) has long since moved on from the series two finale, when she said goodbye to the love of her life, Rob, because even he couldn't compete with her home town in the valleys and the people who live there.

Now she's training to be a nurse under a brisk sergeant-major of an instructor, and repeatedly arguing with a haughty new posh bloke she'll obviously end up sleeping with.

Emma applies for a job as a hairdresser, Aunty Bren's long-lost daughter returns, and Alan is told Little Alan must go on a diet. Basically nothing much happens, and it's delightful.

Actress-writer Ruth Jones is on a roll

Eager fans continue to speculate about a comeback for Gavin & Stacey. In an exciting development for the show's legions of supporters, Jones won't rule it out.

Tidy: In praise of Ruth Jones MBE

The late rise of Ruth Jones, who has been made an MBE, is a blessed relief. According to the prevailing rules of ageism and lookism, Jones should still be plugging away in supporting roles, typically as the large gobby sidekick which for years looked like the outer limit of her casting range.