Sue Perkins

Sue Perkins writes and stars in her first sitcom, playing a vet whose parents don't know she's gay. It's her 40th birthday and her friends have got her a surprise. It's a nice break from the whimsy-strewn stuff that passes for sitcom these days; it's full of actual gags and Perkins's extensive comedy vocabulary always throws up a surprising word when a less inventive one would do. "Your cat is essentially a windsock," she tells one distraught pet-owner who won't accept it's gone. Hugely likable.

Entering its second series, Dilemma is a Radio 4 panel game hosted by Sue Perkins where the guests are forced to admit what they'd do in various - unlikely - ethical situations.

In this opening episode Paul Sinha was asked what it would take for him to stop supporting Liverpool FC; the poet Lemn Sissay was queried on plastic surgery; actor Margaret Cabourn-Smith was asked how far she would help her daughter if she was involved in a drunken hit-and-run; and Graeme Garden had to decide if would only watch ITV in order to preserve the BBC's future.

Aside from Lemn Sissay, the panellists all had their moments. But my favourite 'bit' was when the show opened out to the audience, and the panel then had to pass judgement on their dilemma - including a man who was at the show with two women and didn't know which one to take back home after. Safe to say he didn't come off well.

Dilemma's basically just a round-table discussion programme with jokes. It's nowhere near as fierce as other panel shows like Mock the Week, and if you like your panel shows to be a bit more relaxing then Dilemma is one to seek out.

Sue Perkins has become one of the faces of BBC Two in recent years, presenting all maner of food and pop-historical programming. Now she returns to her comic roots in this self-written sitcom, starring as Sara, a successful female vet about to turn 40 - but still frightened to tell her parents (Jeff Rawle and Harriet Walter) that she's gay. Her motley gang of friends set an ultimatum: if Sara fails to reveal her sexuality within six weeks, they will. To make matters even more chaotic, they arrange for her to attend a series of sessions with an eccentric life coach.

In her acting debut, Perkins is likeably beleaguered and sardonic, while there's a strong supporting cast of Nicola Walker (Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax), Dominic Coleman (Miranda), Shelley Conn (Mistresses) and Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of It, Getting On) - not to mention lots of four-legged extras. Guest stars also pop up throughout the six-part run, including June Brown, Steve Pemberton, Mark Heap, Dawn French and Perkins's Great British Bake Off co-host and original comedy partner Mel Giedroyc[/o]. Pitched somewhere between the slapstick Miranda and the sardonic Grandma's House, it's a highly promising, enjoyably daft opener.

Sue Perkins has become ubiquitous at the BBC in the last few years, whether eating peculiar period food or learning to conduct orchestras or telling us about Mrs Dickens/Maria Von Trapp or, as co-host of The Great British Bake-Off, making bad puns about buns. Someone, somewhere, has decided we can't get enough of her. You may have your own feelings about this. Well, here she is again, allegedly going back to her comedy roots with her own sitcom, where she plays Sara, a neurotic vet who's about to turn 40 but hasn't yet managed to tell her parents that she's gay.

Despite being kind of annoying, she has supportive friends (including ever-reliable performers Nicola Walker and Joanna Scanlan) and is able to attract hot ladies like Shelley Conn, who is charmed by Sara's rotten patter and way with extracting barbed wire from dogs' paws.

Around 50 per cent of the show is laboured animal slapstick - there is a dead cat which is lugged around to decreasing effect - and the other half is meant to be touching, as Sara wrestles with her inadequacies and her friends urge her to finally come out to her folks. It's an awkward mix. The comedy just isn't that funny and the sentiment isn't that interesting. At times I felt a bit of second-hand embarrassment and - worst of all - the show reminded me of two grim indulgent sitcoms of years past: Baddiel's Syndrome, in which David Baddiel and his mates failed miserably at doing a Seinfeld, and Rhona, in which Rhona Cameron and her mates (including Perkins' double act and Bake-Off partner Mel Giedroyc) failed at doing an Ellen. What they all have in common is that their stars aren't actually actors but stand-ups, and that the other two only lasted one series. There's a lesson there.

Sue Perkins interview

Sue Perkins is taking on her first acting role in a decade and perhaps her biggest writing project ever, hence the nerves.

Sue Perkins on cakes, Coren and coming out

Sue Perkins leaves formatted TV and co-presenters behind, writing and starring in a new BBC2 sitcom. Heading Out is about a London vet whose friends buy her therapy for her 40th birthday so she can finally come out to her parents.

Audience participation is taken to a new level in the return of the comedy series that puts its panel through a moral wringer.

Sue Perkins is quick to spot flaws in the panel members' justifications for their actions in hypothetical dilemmas, but even the unshakeable Sue is taken aback by a member of the audience who confesses his problem is which of the two women who have accompanied him to the recording he should go home with.

The funniest moment of the night, though, comes from comedy stalwart Graeme Garden. The dilemma he faces is whether to ensure the future of the BBC for ever by spending the rest of his life viewing what was, until recently, called ITV1.

Anyone who can claim that watching Emmerdale with all the lights switched off is a suitable replacement for Borgen is a comic genius.

Sue Perkins interview

The Great British Bake Off's Sue Perkins plays Sara, a vet who's great at her job, and also popular in Heading Out.

Sue Perkins: Therapy has made me a better person

In a frank interview, Sue Perkins tells Daphne Lockyer how she found the courage to write her new sitcom about 'coming out'.

Steve Oran to star in Heading Out

Steve Oram is set to star in Heading Out, written by and starring Sue Perkins.