Grandma's House

The delicious agony continues. Grandma keeps pushing Tanya back into Clive's arms but neither of them are aware of his recent indiscretion. "You're 52," she ungenerously reminds her. Simon is determined to stop Liz and Tanya putting Grandma in a home and tries to cheer her up with a trip to a therapist. Meanwhile, he is nervously preparing for a sort-of-date with Ben Theodor. Tonight's highlight is what will forever be known as "The Lion King moment". You have to watch it for that reason alone. Amstell is a genius.

Simon Amstell's sharp Jewish sitcom in which he plays a slightly skewed version of himself continues to charm. In tonight's thoroughly farcical episode Simon plans on taking newly kleptomaniac Grandma (Linda Bassett) to see a counsellor before heading off on a date. Things go awry when a bumbling Clive (James Smith) turns up and makes a confession about an entanglement with Liz (Samantha Spiro).

My heroes and heroines: Rebecca Front

The actress and comedian on the people who have most inspired her.

The problem with the first series of Grandma's House was, to put it bluntly, Simon Amstell himself - he may be a talented comic and writer, but his total absence of acting ability or personal warmth made the show feel strained and awkward. Unable to ignore the problem any longer (the fact that every single review pointed it out can't have helped), Amstell has pulled the oldest comedians' trick and turned his failing into an asset with a plotline that sees 'Simon' taking a part in a new production of The Tempest, but finding himself incapable of expressing any kind of normal human emotion. The rest of the episode offers up the basic sitcom antics - there's a male stripper in the house! - with a fistful of decent gags and some fine supporting performances.

The dreadful clockwork of Simon's family life is wound up again. This time the excuse for the ill-fitting cogs to gather is Tanya's birthday.

Naturally Grandma has party hats for everyone and snacks in little bowls. Or should she use the big bowls?

As she havers about it, Simon is concerned with deeper issues: he has to cry for his new theatre role (Ariel in a hip production of The Tempest), but he's worried that years of suppressing family feelings has stunted his ability to emote. That's an excuse for more self-reflexive jokes about whether he's any good at acting (a criticism levelled at Amstell in real life).

It's another beautifully farcical, deliciously awkward half-hour, complete with another cricketing/sex metaphor from Clive to make you shudder. Yes, he's still lurking in the attic.

Simon Amstell interview

For the past couple of years, Simon Amstell has been shut away in a TV studio making two series of his deeply personal BBC2 sitcom, the painfully funny, critically-acclaimed Grandma's House. Now he is back in stand-up mode.

Simon Amstell's writing partner Dan Swimer has said there's unlikely to be a third series of Grandma's House, which would be a huge pity.

But like Fawlty Towers which also left us wanting more, tonight's episode has the real whiff of comedy legend about it.

As the tension is gradually cranked up throughout the half-hour, the payoff is an absolutely classic scene which deserves to be repeated in comedy clip shows for years to come.

Simon, of Never Mind the Buzzcocks fame, is in rehearsals for the opening of his play and is worried (with very good reason) that his limited acting skills won't stretch to crying on cue.

And there are subtle nods here to Simon's obsessively healthy eating habits as well as his less angelic habit of ripping into celebrities. But it's also his mother's birthday and she has decided to book herself a stripper.

Rebecca Front, who plays Tanya so perfectly, has an absolute whale of a time this week. The sight of Tanya's birthday present to herself grimly gyrating around Grandma's three-piece suite in a fireman's outfit is enough to make you weep with laughter.

Simon Amstell's lack of acting talent rears its head again in another corker of an episode, focusing on his impending new play. Meanwhile, Clive reaches breaking point on the day of Tanya's birthday. Linda Bassett steals the show as Amstell's grandmother, though, her incessant fussing poignantly masking her grief for her late husband. If only she could follow her daughters' example in saying what she thinks.

This knowing, beautifully nuanced sitcom reaches the halfway mark in its second series. Wannabe actor Simon (star and creator Simon Amstell) lands the role of Ariel in a new production of The Tempest, so he tries to learn how to cry on command. Elsewhere in his ever-chaotic family, Grandma (Linda Bassett) struggles to come to terms with Grandpa's death, and mother Tanya (The Thick Of It's excellent Rebecca Front) prepares a surprise for her own birthday, while her hapless fiancé Clive (James Smith) comes round in the loft after a heavy drinking session.

Simon is about to appear in an "intimate" performance of ]i]The Tempest[/i], though his mother would rather he did his Rocky impression. Most of tonight focuses on his struggles with acting, as pointed out by some of the less kind critics of the first series, which throws the whole thing into an increasingly self-referential spiral. Funny, sharp, odd and dark, this is one of the best comedies on TV right now.