Ideal

Johnny Vegas's puerile comedy about hapless small-time dope-dealer Moz has managed to make it to a seventh series. It's not that the antics of Moz (Vegas) and his dope-head clients aren't funny (they frequently are), it's just nothing much ever happens. In tonight's series opener, which features guest appearances from Paul Weller and Kara Tointon, Moz plots to win back his true love Jenny - until he discovers she has joined the police force.

Ideal: New series features Paul Weller and Kara Tointon

Dope opera Ideal makes its long awaited return to BBC3 on Thursday 26th May - and there will be some extra special guest stars knocking on Moz's dingy door.

Ideal in 360 degrees and time-lapse!

Harnessing the same advanced technology as before we can now show you how many people there are behind the scenes, most of whom appear to be doing nothing, but are in fact working incredibly hard to make fantastic comedy.

Ideal in 360 degrees

Do you enjoy watching Ideal but get the feeling you might be missing something? Do you ever yearn to spin the camera round or suddenly make it point at the ceiling in the middle of a scene for no particular reason? Now you can!

It's a queer cove of a show, this. The action never staggers far from the hovel of hash 'n' weed seller Moz (Johnny Vegas), so there's no variation of location - and often, his stoner customers simply take turns to arrive, act funny for a bit and leave, so there's not much story to grab onto. Losing your concentration would be forgivable and, perhaps, appropriate. But the eclectic supporting cast are worth staying awake for. This episode offers a hilarious pop duo - berks in leotards and Phil Oakey hairdos - and Sean Lock, who straps on his breasts again as dour transsexual Natalie. Most excitingly, Moz's new neighbour is played by Janeane Garofalo, once a star of The Larry Sanders Show.

Ideal, the tale of shut-in drug dealer Moz (Johnny Vegas) began its sixth series last night with Moz apparently being decapitated by PC Phil. From there, things unfolded with their usual skill, with Vegas's beautiful, idiosyncratic brand of melancholic comedy infusing everything. It now comes with added Sean Lock - as Brian's ex- and now transgendered wife. Rich, dark and satisfying as best plum cake.

Ideal Review: Spliffing

The success of the show is greatly dependant on a strong ensemble cast of peculiar characters.

With a plot line that's bound to be nicked by CSI if they haven't already used it - a cunning twister involving a beheading that turns out to be a case of mistaken identity - Ideal (BBC3) returned for a stoned-out-of-its-brain sixth series. Who'd have thought there'd be so much mileage in Johnny Vegas as a deadbeat drug dealer?

It probably helps if you're under some kind of influence in order to stomach scenes where Vegas gets pleasured, but once you've drifted into Ideal's alternative world of bong, it offers a smorgasbord of surreal pleasures, not least answering the troubling conundrum of what Sean Lock would look like if he sported a pair of fake breasts. Well, it had troubled me.

Ideal series six - first look

Here it is - the trailer for Ideal series six. This is the second series of Ideal I've directed and I felt a lot less nervous than last year.