Sharon Lougher

There's all sorts of weirdness lurking in the depths of the ad industry, and this new panel show exploits it to the full via quiz questions, challenges and banter. Cheeky cockney Micky Flanagan and self-deprecating Mark Watson are team captains and they're joined by Holly Walsh and Joe Wilkinson in an opening episode themed around confectionery.

More surreal, psychedelic nonsense from the Mighty Boosh star, rendered more watchable if you let all the lurid colours take on a hypnotic effect. Watch out for Sergeant Raymond Boombox, who channels the likes of Rockford and Columbo and has a face as yellow as a New York cab, and Roy Circles - part soldier, part PE teacher, part chocolate finger.

The ranty comedy show returns with a new look, a new presenter (Frank Skinner) and a new format: three guests have to compete to get their pet hates consigned to the sin bin. It all works rather well, with Robert Webb, Danny Baker and Fern Britton's banter with Skinner making this first episode feel like you're eavesdropping on a lively discussion down the pub. It's worth viewing alone for the moment the three fellas round on Fern - for slagging off Star Wars.

An early, if unseasonal, terrestrial premiere for this sunny 2010 comedy starring Gemma Arterton as the titular journalist who turns all the boys' heads when she returns to the Dorset village she grew up in, sporting a new nose and some very short shorts. Based on The Guardian's comic strip by Posy Simmonds, the country house farce is fluffy and charming rather than bawdy but you could warm your hands on the perfect summer scenery.

This splendid little series of comic shorts moves on to a semi-autobiographical gem written and directed by Johnny Vegas. Here, we meet the teen incarnation of Johnny, who, because of his girth, is asked to dress up as Santa at the church hall after his dad fails to fulfil ho-ho-ho-ing duties at a very grotty grotto.

Simon Amstell has proved himself a devastatingly acid-tongued TV presenter on Popworld and Never Mind The Buzzcocks. As a stand-up he's much more soulful, and this debut show, filmed in Dublin last year, is well worth catching as he takes us on an eloquent and thrilling journey through his hapless love life.

The three days before Christmas are fraught for poor Adam Smallbone (Tom Hollander), who has charities to support and services to arrange. So it's no surprise he has an 'episode' during a midnight mass packed with drunks after pub closing ('We're the religious equivalent of a kebab,' grumbles Nigel). The last ten minutes are quietly triumphant for our hero though - a fittingly lovely bow topping a package that's been sublimely scripted and acted.

Interview: Robert Webb stars in Charles Dickens spoof

To mark Charles Dickens's 200th birthday, Robert Webb stars in a new BBC comedy entitled The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff. He tells the Metro more about the show...

Downton Abbey, an Old Etonian government, a striking workforce and rioting on the streets - it seems that class is, once again, dominating the headlines. And class is always a fruitful subject for comedians to kick against, which is exactly what they're doing in this one-off special. Frank Skinner is joined by cockney-made-good Micky Flanagan, 'salt of the earth' Roisin Conaty and Rev's well-heeled Miles Jupp to dissect the issue with some comedy chat and experiments in front of a studio audience.

After yet more arguments, mess, and a lot of crisp eating, the second series of BBC3's most successful sitcom comes to a grubby end with Steve (Russell Tovey) called upon to help his ex-girfriend Julie look for her missing brother. In doing so, a perturbed Becky unearths a secret about Steve's past - setting things up splendidly for the just-commissioned third series. Hurrah!