Sam Wollaston

Bad Education is welcome, light-hearted, puerile, peculiarly British relief. Abbey Grove has a new deputy who, worse luck for Jack Whitehall's character Alfie, turns out to be his dad (Harry Enfield). Or, put another way - headteacher Fraser's way - there's a new banterlope at the watering hole. Fraser (Mathew Horne), incidentally, has started a new clothing range, Dolce and GoBanter.

Someone needs to go, to save money. There are interviews. Not Fraser, says Fraser. He is a "succeedophile ... a massive unrepentant succeedophile and you better put me on the goddam register sister, cos I will reoffend ... at succeeding."

Not Alfie either, says Alfie, who insists he's not feckless: "I've got loads of feck, I'm a fecking motherfecker so why don't you three just back the feck off ..." I know, very much the same kind of idea as the succeedaphile one. And very silly. But still funny.

Boomers TV review

A spirited cast, including Alison Steadman and Nigel Planer struggle in a sitcom about newly retired baby boomers.

Walter: a comedy-drama that's neither comic or dramatic

ITV boss Kevin Lygo wrote this aimless, unfunny cop drama under a pseudonym. Don't give up the day job, Kevin.

Review: Backchat with Jack Whitehall and his Dad

I do like Backchat. Yes, 45 minutes is too long, even for a Father's Day special. It would have been better tightened up and squeezed into a sharper half-hour.

Cardinal Burns TV review

This inspired comedy has grown up a little on its transfer from E4 to Channel 4 - but not much. It's still enjoyably puerile.

There's a massive spider on the wall in the men's toilet at the nursing home where Derek (Channel 4) works. Is it after the fly perhaps? No, because this is Ricky Gervais wobbly hand-held mockumentary style. Who is this camera operator supposed to be though? A recovering alcoholic? A resident? Maybe with Parkinson's? Certainly with no previous experience of camera operation - it's lurching all over the place, zooming in and out, I'm feeling a bit airsick to be honest. Oh for a bit of fly-on-a-wall steadiness.

And what are these amateur documentaries supposed to be, do you ever ask? I suppose a residential care home is a more likely subject than a Slough-based paper company, but I'm wondering if the whole mockumentary idea is a little tired?

Anyway, the reason for the big spider is of course to demonstrate Derek's nature. He's terrified of it but he certainly doesn't want it killed. "Go and get a cup, catch it," he tells Dougie (Karl Pilkington). "Make sure you catch it, and let it go free." Derek may not be the brightest tool in the box, or the bravest, but he's a good guy, kind and gentle, and he loves animals.

You can tell that Derek's not so bright, a bit backward, because of the way RG plays him. He hunches over a little, tilts his head to one side, darts his eyes around, grimaces idiotically, and he holds his hands in front of him, like some kind of rodent. Plus, he's not so good at declining his verbs. "Animals always tries their best," he says, demonstrating his selflessness and love of animals as well as confusion over the third person. It's the same on Twitter: "I loves animals," tweets @MrDerekNoakes. It's always a dead give away, poor verb declension ...

That's the biggest problem with Derek. Not, as some have said, that it mocks people with learning difficulties (it's too kind for that, and tries to be sympathetic). Just that it's a very crude portrayal. Gervais's previous characters - David Brent and Andy Millman - are not, I suspect, so very different from RG himself, kind of grotesque caricatures. Here he's trying to be someone else completely, and it's awful.

It may not be fashionable, but I'm a fan of Ricky Gervais. I used to like him on the radio with Stephen Merchant. Then The Office pretty much changed comedy on television, invented awkwardness. Extras was bold and bloody hilarious. I also very much enjoyed his Golden Globes hosting - baring a cheeky British arse to humourless Hollywood. But he's no Tom Hanks himself (and Derek's not Forrest Gump). Karl Pilkington also - I enjoy his Idiot Abroad show but he's no great actor.

Derek's father has moved in. He's a ladies' man, and he likes a drink (well, he seems to be Irish, maybe Derek isn't totally lazy-stereotype free). But the old man is a good 'un too. He's got a photo album, pictures of himself on holiday - France, Germany, Morocco, Spain - with a different lady in each place. "That's the point in travelling, boy: nookie." "Newquay?" says Derek, darting his eyes around, shaking his head. "I haven't been to Newquay."

A pun! Nookie, said a bit drunk and a bit Irish (same thing innit?) sounds a bit like Newquay. Especially if you're a half-wit ...

That's the other big problem with Derek. That it's not very smart. Or very funny. Or very good.

Jolly, though not a lot more original, GameFace (Channel 4) stars and is written by Roisin Conaty. She's Marcella, an "actor" (postal worker), struggling to get her shit together. You know: work, driving licence, love, what she eats and shouldn't be eating, all that. Life, basically. She's clumsy and disorganised, not one of life's winners in the traditional sense, but funny in a self-deprecating kind of way. There's something of Miranda about her, though with more of an edge and attitude - swearier, more real, more now, less cosy, less annoying.

GameFace isn't breaking any new ground. A lot of it feels at least medium to well-done - a little self-loathing, the comfort eating, the life coach (usually a shrink), the denial, saying she's "in communications" about delivering the mail, the book group, not having read the book ... But I did enjoy the irate explosion of the book-group woman who actually wants to discuss The Scarlet Letter. And Marcella's "Don't be an arsehole" talk to her old school. Moving almost, as well as good advice. I'll certainly give it another go.

Derek; GameFace - TV review

Ricky Gervais is out of his depth playing a character that isn't based on his own worst foibles, and things are not helped by a script that is not funny or smart enough.

Lots of priceless moments and lines in The Trip to Italy (BBC), including the real Steve Coogan being a sort of fictional (although probably pretty real) Steve Coogan, being Roger Moore, being Alanis Morissette: "And I'm here to remind you/ Of the mess you left when you went away" ... hahaha. It's more melancholic this time round, and funnier. I think it's the best thing on TV right now.

Alexander Armstrong's Real Ripping Yarns (BBC Four), an exploration of the literature - boys' books and magazines, Boy's Own Paper etc - that inspired Michael Palin and Terry Jones's post-Python television project. By the amiable actor, comedian and presenter now inextricably linked with the word Pointless (I actually hear that sound - the frantic tinkly synthetic pizzicato ascending scale as the red bars disappear from 100 to zero - whenever I see his face).

It's a world of healthy outdoor living, risk-taking, British pluck, colonial heroes and derring-do; one in which hobbies were encouraged but onanism was a big no-nonanism (it leads to sickness, both physical and mental, of course). Most things could be sorted out by a good thrashing or an ice-cold bath.

What's nice about the programme is that as well as quite rightly ridiculing the BOP and the rest, AA is clearly also rather fond of them. It's celebratory too then, affectionate even. And so, in keeping with the original Ripping Yarns of Palin and Jones, who both feature here, basically everyone's tossing everyone else off, or would be if it wasn't such a sin.