Tim Walker

David Walliams had a lucky escape from Jimmy Savile

David Walliams, the Little Britain star, says that, as a ten-year-old boy, he wrote to Jimmy Savile, asking him to fix it for him to meet Brian Blessed.

Maureen Lipman takes a swipe at John Cleese

Maureen Lipman suggests John Cleese has the mental age of a 17 year-old following the news that he has married for the fourth time.

We arrive at the Gates, Sky Living's new sitcom about the parents and staff of a congenial city primary, and the 15-minute social minefield they're forced to navigate at the beginning and end of each school day. Gates had the potential to be a new Outnumbered, with its harried middle-class parents, and its ensemble's impeccable comedy pedigree: Sue Johnston (The Royle Family); Joanna Page (Gavin & Stacey); Tony Gardner (Lead Balloon; Fresh Meat).

In the first episode, builder and new parent Mark (Tom Ellis, him off Miranda) was cornered on the school run by two terrifying mums: a militantly mustard-keen Aussie who organises coffee mornings and salsa-cise evenings, and an uncomfortably tactile art therapist. The teacher (Johnston) is perpetually hung- over. The headmaster is barely out of short trousers himself, and eager to please Ofsted with his "School and Home Partnership Workshop Week" (aka Parents' Week). The only sane people in the school are the pupils.

I laughed out loud once - at the headmaster's bowing and scraping before a bemused Ofsted inspector - and smiled once or twice more. Gates hasn't quite decided whether it's a realist cringe comedy, or a semi-surrealist one. A lot of sitcom pilots disappoint, but they can improve with age. The second series of both the BBC's Episodes and Grandma's House, for example, have been received far more warmly than their first. Gates is still only half an idea, middlingly executed, but given time it might settle into something more watchable. Outnumbered, though, it ain't.

Capaldi: Leveson will influence new Thick of It

Peter Capaldi, who stars in The Thick of It, says he stays away from politicians so that he can remain impartial as an actor.

In the first of a new run of the Olympics mockumentary Twenty Twelve, the hapless Games organisers were - as usual - struggling to fix a series of semi-consequential problems with signature incompetence. It's the same jokes all over again, and, like the most worn-out Sorkinisms (recycled material), they become less and less funny with each repetition. Still, in spite of myself, I chuckled at the Nathan Barley-esque names for the employees of PR company Perfect Curve: "Senior Trend Analyst, Coco Lomax; Information Architect, Barney Lumsden; and Viral Concept Designer, Karl Marx."

Ab Fab musical wouldn't ring true, says Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax, the script editor of Absolutely Fabulous, says a musical version of the popular television series would not work.

Jennifer Saunders: TV is no laughing matter for women

Jennifer Saunders, star of the BBC's Absolutely Fabulous, says it is harder for women to succeed in television than it was 20 years ago.

David Cameron finds himself in the thick of it

Peter Capaldi, the star of The Thick of It, says a Coalition-themed series of the celebrated BBC comedy is in the offing.

Ruby Wax is Veuve Clicquot woman of the year

Ruby Wax announces she has won the Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year award before the presentation.

Ronnie Corbett: Knighthoods are no laughing matter

Ronnie Corbett says that some of his contemporaries should have been awarded knighthoods.