Ruth Jones (I)

Brace yourself as the third series of Ruth Jones's comedy drama hurtles to a close. With a fourth season of Pontyberry joys, tears and mishaps on the way, there are cliffs to be hung, with a clutch of storylines cued up for action. Wedding fever is in the air, with Luke and Zoe's stag and hen frolics promising to get lively. But Stella could be in for more heartbreak as Michael heads to Chichester - with his ex.

Radio Times review

Star and showrunner Ruth Jones wisely hands her scripting laptop to Steve Speirs, the actor who does such fine light comic work as Big Alan, for Big Alan's big episode. Yes, Alan's taken hostage by a militant pensioner on a bus trip to Bristol Zoo, but his main trial is convincing Celia to give him another chance after he bottled out of taking their relationship further.

Speirs writes himself a perfectly sweet and unpretentious scene, but doesn't stop there. Stella and Michael (Jones and Patrick Baladi) also have a series of lovely two-handers, while Emma rues her dalliance with her boss and young, silly Ben gets involved in a classic example of teenagers acting stupidly but all too believably.

Radio Times review

Not as many funny lines as usual in this episode, although Yasmine Akram is overplaying it nicely as Parvadi, the dangerously bored and randy assistant in her uncle's convenience store. Oh, and the rivalry between business partners Aunty Brenda and Dai Davies is becoming obsessively bitter, to the point where only murder or fiery sex can resolve the tension. Either would be scary.

Mainly, though, we're tracking the twin romances of Emma and Marcus, an unlikely workplace fling that's moving too quickly, and Stella and Michael. A lovely set piece sees her save him from embarrassment at a corporate do. The chemistry between Ruth Jones and Patrick Baladi, both unshowily nailing the subtleties of their characters, is a joy.

Rob Evans interview

Writer Rob Evans talks about working with Ruth Jones, using the Valleys as inspiration and being proud of his new prime time ITV show Edge of Heaven.

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.