Tom Basden

Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme (Radio 4) is back for a third series and this week's episode dealt with "the thorny issue of dating", featuring short, bathetic stanzas on flirting, speed dating and other disappointments of the heart. He plays a version of himself: a disappointed, slightly pompous fool with some very odd ideas about courting. This week he brought female companion Ann White (a perfectly deadpan Ellie White) for a romantic tour of the studio, complete with champagne, to the growing annoyance of Tom Basden, his brilliantly dour musical accompanist. While he provided tender flamenco strings, the hapless bard attempted to set a quixotic tone, but it wasn't long before their carping took centre stage and Ann White retreated to the control room with a Brian Cox podcast. "You've been a sourpuss for almost two minutes now," Key hissed as the guitarist tried to push on with the show.

It's only 15 minutes long but every episode perfectly showcases Key's supreme command of tone. His sentences never end where you expect them to and the oddly appealing atmosphere he creates is so spellbinding, it's like emerging from a nice fog when he spits you out at the other end. Fifteen minutes is both perfect and far too short.

We're now more than halfway through the second series of the ancient Rome-set sitcom, which follows the surprisingly still relevant sex and city-based trials and tribulations of Marcus (Tom Rosenthal) and Stylax (Joel Fry). Written by Sam Leifer and Tom Basden - with the latter's sporadic appearances as taunted office water-carrier Aurelius a definite highlight - the show boasts an impressive supporting cast, with this series' cameos including Rosenthal's sport commentator dad Jim and Basden's sometime comedy partner Tim Key.

Tom Basden interview

As Holes opens in London, the playwright talks about the loneliness of standup, his affection for his characters and having a plane-crash comedy open at the time of a real air disaster.

Machynlleth Comedy Festival special

Previews of Toby, Tom Basden and Benjamin Partridge.

Tom Basden's R4 comedy adapted for small screen

Radio 4's political sitcom Party is being adapted for television.

Who makes you laugh? You may find yourself asking that more than once tonight as the annual Comedy Awards are dished out. Humour is a subjective business and what makes one person chortle can leave another totally nonplussed. Jonathan Ross will be trying to keep best order for tonight's gag fest and it's good to see fresh-ish names such as Steve Delaney, Jonny Sweet and Tom Basden cropping up among a clutch of usual suspects. The night climaxes with the crowning of the King or Queen of Comedy - can Jack Whitehall hang on to his title? Given he's up against exactly the same opposition as last year - a bit unimaginative, that - then why not?

If you couldn't tell that The Wrong Mans was a Big Deal from the explosive trailers and high production values, then the quality of the supporting cast should confirm it: Dougray Scott, Sarah Solemani, Benedict Wong, Emilia Fox, Nick Moran, Dawn French, Tom Basden...

Even more impressively, each turn (Fox and French excepted, although we suspect there'll be more to come there) makes an impression, while creator-stars Mat Baynton and James Corden nail the odd couple dynamic that keeps this occasionally leaky vessel afloat. We join Sam (Baynton) and Phil (Corden) drifting further out of their depth at the hands of psychotic gangsters Moran and Wong, before a show-stopping presentation from Sam saves his professional hide while bringing the danger even closer to home.

It's in these collisions of the workaday and the white knuckle that The Wrong Mans works best, as the more traditional thriller elements stubbornly fail to coalesce with any conviction. But it's never dull and frequently very funny.

Laughter, a doctor once said, is the best medicine. This week's opening episodes of two new sitcoms should only be prescribed by a Crippen-like physician, such was the dearth of merriment among them.

In its defence, The Wrong Mans is essentially more comedy-drama than straight sitcom. It's saved from being yet another James Corden vanity project (I'm not a fan of his, let's get that out of the way) by being co-written by and co-starring Mathew Baynton, who appeared in Gavin & Stacey but is also part of the marvellous Horrible Histories cast.

Baynton's character Sam is a meek council worker who witnesses a car crash, and after answering a mobile phone at the scene he's plunged into a world of intrigue and kidnapping. Rather than go to the police with any evidence he's got, he's persuaded by office mailman friend Phil (Corden) to keep in touch with the kidnappers and rescue the mystery lady in trouble.

And this turn of events is the main problem - Sam would have gone to the police, and would have ignored any stupid 'advice' from his frankly stupid friend. The opener didn't know if it wanted to play it for laughs (there was some slapstick involving a hospital bed and an anaesthetic) or veer off into crime thriller territory (the episode ended with the pair of them blindfolded and bundled into a van themselves).

The programme therefore fell between the two, and was neither funny or tense enough. Having said that, pilots can be tough so it warrants a second look, mainly because of a strong performance from Baynton and a decent supporting cast including Tom Basden and Sarah Solemani.

Love him or hate him, James Corden undeniably does have a range of talents - actor, writer and co-creator of some very funny comedy (we'll politely forget the car crash of his misguided BBC sketch show with Mathew Horne). And now, dontchaknow, he's come up with another comedy vehicle, The Wrong Mans (****), which had a very accomplished debut last night.

Corden, late of the National Theatre and Broadway, has co-written, with fellow Gavin & Stacey alumnus Mathew Baynton, a comedy thriller in the style of Simon Pegg and Joe Wright's Cornetto trilogy, with appreciative nods (in the title) to Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller and, in camerawork and misfit leads, to Peep Show.

Baynton is nice but weedy Sam, who wakes up one wintry morning with the mother of a hangover, only to find his pushbike has been stolen so he has to walk to work, as a town planning and noise guidance adviser for Berkshire County Council. On his way, he's the only witness to a car crash and he picks up a ringing phone; a man issues threats and in later calls it's clear a woman has been kidnapped.

At work Sam takes postboy Phil (Corden) into his confidence. Phil is beside himself; he's a 31-year-old living at home with his mum and he keeps trying to organise fun days paint-balling or bowling with his colleagues (oblivious to the fact they all think he's a boring knob); for him, this mystery is his very own live-action Grand Theft Auto, and he convinces Sam not to call the police but to try to rescue the woman and become heroes.

The opening episode efficiently essayed the set-up, and there are some promising relationships to be explored in the following five weeks. Sarah Solemani (who was so brilliant in Him & Her) is Sam's boss, but also the girlfriend who recently dumped him because he was too needy, while Tom Basden is the horrible colleague we'd love to be taken down a peg or two.

Corden clearly has pulling power, as those names above suggest, and Dawn French, Nick Moran, Rebecca Front and Dougray Scott will appear in future episodes - although David Harewood, who appeared briefly last night, shot his scenes before his Homeland stardom. The opener had some neat twists and turns and ended on a great cliffhanger. Definitely one to stay with.