Tony Gardner

The new Friday morning comedy on Radio 4, Polyoaks, is about the revolution soon to come when general practitioners take over from Primary Care Trusts in handling funds. Co-written by David Spicer and practising medical satirist Dr Phil Hammond, it has closely observed character types in Dr Roy (Nigel Planer) and his brother Dr Hugh (Tony Gardner) who pursue their father's old medical practice in the house they were born in. They have a canny manager in Betty (Celia Imrie) who has taken on the retraining of Dr Jeremy (famous from TV but recently involved in scandal) because the fee the state pays for doing this is so big. While the writers are careful to indicate that much of what is happening now began under the Blair-Brown governments they are scarily predictive about the dangers of putting large budgets into the hands of people not trained to handle them. Listen and learn. Frank Stirling, sharp as a hypodermic, directs for independents Unique.

Phil Cornwell (Dead Ringers, Stella Street) heads the cast of this new sitcom from Andrew McGibbon. Dave Kafka is a typical Cockney geezer, returning to a London housing estate after a spell 'inside'. Felix Dexter and Tony Gardner also star. Intriguingly, this radio show will also be broadcast as a film on BBC interactive (i.e., via the red button). How will that work, I wonder?

Jack Dee's back with a second series of his (written with Pete Sinclair) hugely enjoyable BBC2 sitcom Lead Balloon.

Dee's portrayal of cantankerous, middle-aged comedian Rick Spleen has more than a touch of a media-class Tony Hancock to it - a character whose talent for digging himself into holes is second only to a grave-digger's.

One of the main joys of Lead Balloon is its small cast of supporting characters, comprising Rick's supremely patient wife (Raquel Cassidy), staggeringly vague daughter Sam (Antonia Campbell-Hughes), their permanently unheppy Polish home help Magda (brilliantly played by Anna Crilly) and his far-smarter co-writer Marty (Sean Power).

Even as minor a role as over-familiar local cafe owner Michael (Tony Gardner) is a perfectly formed, fully drawn character.

Every one of them was on top form, producing a just about flawless half hour of delightfully miserablist comedy. Lead Balloon is sure to go down well again this winter.

When Lead Balloon started, I obsessed about its debt to Curb Your Enthusiasm and whether it was too self-regarding in having a comedian playing a comedian. But I guess what counts is whether it's funny, and Lead Balloon has delivered lovely moments as well as scene-stealing turns from Anna Crilly's Magda, as perpetually gloomy as a Soviet tenement block, and Tony Gardner as a shell-shocked City trader-turned-organic restaurateur. And leading it all is Dee, who turns childish pettiness into something almost endearing.