Victor Lewis-Smith

Friday Night Dinner (C4, 10.30pm) features a fictional Jewish family from North London, and I'm still not sure whether the programme is comedy or tragedy. Either way though, it's increasingly watchable.

A new episode of The Royle Family (BBC1, 9.45pm) reminds me that, according to the BBC's website, "In 2001 Caroline Aherne announced her retirement from TV." Like Frank Sinatra before her, she then discovered that the only thing a celebrity can do after announcing their retirement is to make a comeback. I'm glad she did, though.

Victor Lewis-Smith: How the BBC has killed TV comedy

The organisation that once produced so much original comedy is now a timid place, where the bland lead the bland.

And what about the jokes of Victor Lewis-Smith on Radio 1 (Saturdays, repeated Fridays). He is undoubtedly a funny fellow, full of breakneck wisecracks and all sorts of voices. But some of his jokes appear to be made at the expense of ordinary people. Who, for instance, was the receptionist asked to find, of all people, Haile Selassie? And how funny is it that some of us don't recognise the old emperor's name?