Sally Phillips

Ten Fringe stars with very different TV roles

Anyway, here are ten acts at the Fringe who you may know from other TV shows, stand-up appearances not counted.

Best comedy shows at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016

What to find the biggest laughs, from Daniel Kitson at The Stand to James Acaster at Pleasance Courtyard

Sally Phillips: How I became a Christian

The comedy actress, known for her roles in Miranda and Bridget Jones, talks about her Christian conversion and her campaign for Down's syndrome equality.

A triple bill from the queen of affable slapstick. This binge includes the episode in which Miranda's plan to take French classes backfires when she runs into a loathed former teacher, played by Peter Davison - whose occasional TV appearances are a reminder of his exemplary timing. It also includes the one with the Officer and a Gentleman ending and the usual sterling support from Sarah Hadland, Sally Phillips and Patricia Hodge.

Series two continues, with Dan (Tom Stourton) given an enlightening vision of a future without the rule of his maniacal mother, thanks to a visit from his feckless Aunt Leslie (the excellent Sally Phillips), who teaches him that he can get anything he wants from society without giving anything in return. Meanwhile, after the delivery of six unordered pizzas, Hannah (Charlotte Ritchie) believes that she's entered a "golden week", a rarified era when lucky breaks will continue to flow liberally.

Radio Times review

It's a terrible sitcom this. Obscene, shallow, full of unpleasant characters. But from its evil comic stew moments always bubble up that make you splutter with a sort of guilty laughter.

This episode sees the reappearance of our siblings' mother (Stella Gonet) and, in a new development, their hippie aunt Leslie (Sally Phillips), who takes a shine to doofus Dan. But as ever the best scenes belong to Charlotte Ritchie as his heartless sister Hannah, who believes she is at last having a Golden Week when everything goes right. It builds to a heroically tasteless climax as she appears in an R&B video while sweating more than the part strictly demands.

Talking to Strangers: Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan

Tired of being asked to play Latvian prostitutes, Sally Phillips and Lily Bevan have come up with their own characters.

How we made Smack the Pony

Sally Phillips, actor: 'I was afraid it would be so awful that no woman would ever be allowed on television again'

Cluub Zarathustra: where British comedy was reborn

The cult comedy night that launched the careers of Simon Munnery, Stewart Lee, Kevin Eldon, Sally Phillips and others is 20 years old.

Radio Times review

Series nine of what must be Radio 4's longest-currently-running sitcom begins with Clare (the superb Sally Phillips) arriving late for a meeting with her fellow social workers at Sparrowhawk Family Centre. Which is rather odd, as she's supposed to be on honeymoon at the time.

She's remaining tight-lipped as to why she left her long-suffering partner Brian (Alex Lowe) at the airport while he enjoyed a nibbling-fish foot spa. But as he decided to continue on the holiday - it is full board and non-refundable, so it's a shame to waste it - we get to hear his side of the story when numbs the minds of his fellow holiday-makers and locals with the details.

It provides a complementary storyline to the travails of the social workers back home, and includes a hilarious turn from Nina Conti as a shrill holiday rep intent only on relaying information about a series of increasingly bizarre day trips.

Meanwhile, Clare is having to contend with an elderly Mrs Magoo character on the Sparrowhawk Estate, who is convinced that she will die that day - as her visual sight has diminished so her second sight has improved, apparently. Hannah Gordon is virtually unrecognisable as the batty old dear.

If you haven't listened before - and if not, where have you been for the past ten years? - Clare in the Community walks a fine line between silly, scatological humour and nuanced satire of government do-gooders who know all the current jargon but nothing of people's everyday concerns.