Simon Day

BBC Four frequently wheels out ageing tunesmiths for rock retrospectives, but nothing on as grand a scale as this. Brian Pern of prog pioneers Thotch, more commonly known as The Fast Show's Simon Day, takes us through a three-part history of all things rock in this spoof series, featuring contributions from Jools Holland and Roger Taylor, as well as Vic and Bob's folk monsters Mulligan and O'Hare. Day and director Rhys Thomas have created an absolute treat for musos and comedy fans alike.

Simon Day and Ralf Little join The Ladykillers cast

Graham Linehan's The Ladykillers is heading back to the West End over the summer with a new cast which includes Simon Day, Ralf Little, Angela Thorne and Chris McCalphy.

Made by Steve Coogan's Baby Cow stable, Common Ground is a collection of ten 15-minute comedy shorts, each set in a neighbourhood in south London. Having featured Simon Day, Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes and Charles Dance in previous weeks, the series concludes with Barry - based around Alex Lowe's octogenarian little Englander character which he honed by calling in to Iain Lee's LBC programme in the mid-2000s. With his wife having run off with a retired financial advisor, Barry embarks on a bucket list with his grandson.

It may not be earth-shatteringly original, but it's worth it just to hear Barry's view on pink candy floss: 'It's like eating Barbara Cartland's minge.' A (fictional) former member of So Solid Crew takes over a church choir in the far-funnier Nell, Ted and Marlon. It quickly descends into a creepy love triangle (with One Foot In the Grave actress Annette Crosbie occasionally chiming in with some unexpected filth); the humour is sharp, surreal and pleasantly wicked in places.

This hit-and-miss series of comedy shorts continues tonight with a promising offering starring and co-written by former Fast Show star Simon Day. He plays a cheery personal trainer whose clients include a Hollywood-bound actor and a young boy whose mother he has taken a fancy to. Look out also for The Royle Family's Liz Smith in a cantankerous supporting role.

Simon Day at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival

It's funny how you think you know someone, when you actually don't know them at all. At the height of his fame, The Fast Show's Simon Day was continually high on drink and drugs.

What I see in the mirror: Simon Day

'It would be nice to have thick hair. The hair went pretty young'

From the vault: Simon Day's 'Grass'

In Grass, Billy Bleach, Day's character on The Fast Show, is a Londoner who is reasonably happy enough with his life of taking a Thai cooking class and being a pub know-it-all. Unfortunately, all that changes in an instant after witnessing a gangland killing and then finding himself relocated to Norfolk in rural England under a witness protection program (he was really counting on Florida).

I lost count, during The Function Room (Channel 4, Sunday), how many times the uniformly excellent cast said "shit" ... Admittedly, the police and residents meeting in a pub sought to crack the case of the so-called Shit-Egg Killer, a venal hurler of uncouth missiles through blameless suburban windows. They won't use that nickname in the press, counselled Kevin Eldon's weary-eyed copper. Yeah, no one puts shit in the papers, a sarky resident quipped. Not even the Daily Mail.

Writer Dan Maier and the cast were enjoying themselves so much it was infectious. "A phalanx of youths have been causing ructions in my cul-de-sac," complained an out-of-work camp thesp plummily, introducing a Crimewatch-meets-Mrs-Slocombe vibe. It's nice to see Simon Day playing another pub bore. He wasn't saying that talcum powder is made from human skulls, just noting that episodes of ethnic cleansing are followed by rises in global talc production. I'm not sure where Maier goes after this pilot, but I really want to find out. Commission a series, Channel 4!