Stephen Mangan

Tony Pitts and Kevin Eldon's elliptical comedy, about a group of "sheddists" who have set up a kind of shed shanty town on a beach, has had a couple of major cast changes since its acclaimed first series. For a start, Eldon's other work commitments precluded him from writing and acting, but Pitts has taken up the writing slack and Stephen Mangan has ably filled the role of Jimmy.

Suranne Jones also found herself too busy to recommit to the role of Diane, but Rosina Carbone is a great replacement. The absurdist humour is still top-notch and well complemented by lyrical narration from Maxine Peake.

Special mention must go to Emma Fryer, whose deranged turn as Deborah, the Gypsy who breaks into song at the drop of a hat is a hoot.

If you think of radio in colour this comedy comes in shades of sepia and charcoal with the occasional bright patch of green. It's also pretty addictive, a floaty tale of people looking for new starts, picking themselves up from failed ones, seeking change and consolation. The writer is Tony Pitts, the cast is superb (it includes Stephen Mangan and Ronnie Ancona), the narrator is Maxine Peake and this is a second series. If you're listening in bed be careful not to drop off as it will slot neatly into a dream.

Series two provided little respite for downtrodden British writers Sean and Beverly as they fought to keep their sitcom - and marriage - alive whilst all around them in La La Land were losing their heads. It didn't help that Beverley (Tamsin Greig) had slept with the show's star Matt LeBlanc (Matt LeBlanc), or that Sean (Stephen Mangan) was now sleeping with the female lead. The second season of Episodes continued to offer a smart, funny, hyper-real story of 'normal' people trying to make it in Hollywood.

Two important reasons for the public's infatuation with Eric and Ern are nailed in the last of this lovely series. First, as fan Stephen Mangan identifies: "You always felt you were inside the joke with them." And second, their show was a great leveller. Penelope Keith, a guest in 1977, recalls Eric telling her, "You're known for being dignified. We're going to get rid of all that." And so they did, making the elegant actress clamber off an unfinished staircase in a Fred-and-Ginger spoof. But Keith's street cred soared after that.

'Now we're on the dole channel,' chuckles Peter Richardson at the end of this Comic Strip retrospective-cum-lap of honour. Even so, such reduced circumstances can't detract from a 30-year career which has been patchy but periodically inspired. As an appetiser for the gang's forthcoming new film Five Go Mad in Rehab on Wednesday, this lengthy doc ambles, sometimes at glacial pace, down memory lane with the help of fans and collaborators including Simon Pegg, Stephen Mangan and Ross Noble. The duration might be a stretch for casual fans, but as fans of 'the dole channel' will know, there's always plenty of space to be filled. Still, the Strip's best moments (The Strike, GLC) still look gleefully, recklessly brilliant - it's hard to imagine frontline politicians being satirised so scabrously in today's more timid TV climate.

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