Sarah Hughes (I)

Rob Lowe makes fun of the end of the world... in Slough

The one-time Hollywood hellraiser plays a rakish priest in Sky1's new comedy-drama. He tells Sarah Hughes that the show's typically British mix of 'seriousness and cheek' proved irresistible.

Yonderland - just don't call it 'family comedy'

'Yeah, we don't mind being compared to Monty Python'

Not Safe for Work: This Life for a new generation?

Channel 4's new drama about young people saddled with debt, unable to afford to buy a house and struggling to find work aims to define a generation in the way This Life and Peep Show did for their audiences.

How Channel 4's No Offence is shaking up police drama

Shameless creator Paul Abbott's latest series is like an X-rated version of The Bill.

On paper, Yonderland shouldn't have worked. In an era dominated by knowing Disney-style tween shows and animated superhero spin-offs, a show deliberately harking back to 1980s films such as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal - featuring a multi-tasking mum on a quest to save a fantasy world, aided by a puppet and a talking stick - should have seemed creaky and ludicrous.

And yet Sky1's Sunday-night comedy has been a success. Raved about by critics, it pulls in an average of 1.2 million viewers, a great ratings figure for a non-terrestrial channel.

That's partly down to the wit of its writing team, the comedians behind the similarly smart/silly Horrible Histories, and partly because Yonderland is at the forefront of a heartening new commissioning trend, away from kid-specific programming and towards all-inclusive family entertainment.

Have you been watching ... Yonderland?

The sort of frothy concoction that looks effortless but is actually very hard to get right, Yonderland is perfect family viewing: utterly daft but very big-hearted.

The long arm of the law finds its funnybone

Danny Boyle is among those revitalising the comedy cop show with Babylon.

Armando Iannucci on how he's skewering America

It's a tale of thwarted political ambition - but Armando Iannucci's new US sitcom is in a different world, he tells .

A cinematic version of The Trip has set the US talking

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's TV comedy travelogue has made stars of the bickering duo, says Sarah Hughes.

Meet the new Gallaghers

As the American version of 'Shameless' premieres, Sarah Hughes asks if US audiences will be able to warm to the rowdy clan and alcoholic, work-shy dad.