Rev.

A more prominent role for the brilliant Simon McBurney as the fabulously disdainful Archdeacon Robert has helped to make the second series of this sitcom about an inner city parish a real treat. He's here from the start in this episode, circling gleefully as Reverend Adam Smallbone (Tom Hollander) discovers a hole in the church accounts. Salvation arrives in the form of a wealthy city banker, played by guest star Richard E Grant, who fetches up at St Saviours to join the church's Alcoholics Anonymous class. However Adam soon finds himself morally compromised once again.

It's the Church of England versus Britain's major religion - football - this week as Adam makes the rash decision to take part in an inter-faith soccer match.

It's an absolutely sublime episode that also finds Adam wracked with jealousy once again.

That's nothing new, of course but this time it's over head teacher Ellie's friendship with one of her male teachers who has cool hair, skinny jeans, an expensive bike and is playing for the Catholics.

Football in TV shows rarely works but the match is simply ­brilliant - a wonderfully edited amalgam of hot-shot Italians, projectile vomiting and ­Archdeacon Robert, effortlessly perfect as the man in black.

And to add even more spice to this multi-faith pick 'n' mix, this week, Mick has decided to take up Buddhism.

"I'm a fan," offers Adam ­encouragingly, "but I prefer a ­religion with a God."

What's noticeable about this second series is that there's not an ounce of flab on this comedy.

Every single frame, every facial expression, each one of Adam's petty little emotions adds another subtle shade to the total picture.

Adam's little crush on Ellie may be hopeless (and of course, wrong) but it's also one of the things that makes him human and lovable.

What's even more surprising is that after making us laugh out loud for 30 minutes, right at the end the script takes a sharp turn somewhere quite unexpected.

We're in totally different territory now, but the script - and Tom Hollander - handle that perfectly, showing far nimbler footwork than anything you see on the pitch.

Genial inner-city vicar Adam is nervous about the forthcoming religious inspection at the C of E school run by the comely Ellie. He's particularly disturbed by Matthew, a cool new teacher whose credentials are in doubt after he gave a school assembly on Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene.

So jealous Adam gets all pompous and defensive when he agrees to put together a team to take part in the archdeacon's beloved interdenominational football tournament. But Adam has problems raising enthusiasm. His fey curate Nigel (Miles Jupp) is appalled and wonders aloud: "Can we do bowls instead?"

As ever, gentle Adam (Tom Hollander) is at his funniest when his less-than-godly side starts to show, this time when he behaves disgracefully during the match. But we are all brought up short by a tragedy, and a final, genuinely moving few minutes when Adam is called upon to bring solace.

"Do Muslims go to heaven?" is just the sort of question to throw hapless vicar Adam into a bit of tizz - especially when it comes from a small child in school assembly. And it sets him off on a quest to learn about the Islamic faith. Of course it is a very lackadaisical, Adam-style quest, which ends up not in a voyage of discovery but an inter-faith football tournament. Which proves a little embarrassing because Adam's attempts to put together a St Saviours' team demonstrate his usual brand of hopelessness. A church notice fails to attract much interest. "One name! Why hasn't anyone else signed up for our football team?" he demands. "Because you have a congregation of women of 60 with hip problems," replies Nigel (Miles Jupp), the lay reader, pointedly.

Just to make life worse, Adam's highly admired headmistress Ellie (Lucy Liemann) has a hunky new member of staff who, it appears, is more than just her work colleague - causing some very unvicarly jealousy to raise its head. And some unvicarly language. "Is it me, or is Mr Feld a bit of a d---?" demands Adam when his patience runs out. As usual, this series proves more charming and whimsical than actually funny, but Tom Hollander as the bumbling Adam is a class act.

Forget Ofsted, it's the church school religious inspection that worries Adam (Tom Hollander). Fail this and Archdeacon Robert won't be happy. Not that Ellie's concerned, with new teacher Feld (or "twatty Matty man" in Adam's jealous estimation) inspiring the kids. But there's a problem: Feld's on the side of Dawkins, not the angels. Meantime, Adam enters a team in an inter-faith football tournament. Shame it includes Nigel in goal. Adam: "Man up, put your sports face on or we're going to get humiliated!" The best sitcom on TV - as tonight proves, it never settles for easy laughs.

There's a heatwave in St Saviour In The Marshes this week and it's giving Adam (Tom Hollander) some very disturbing nightmares. One of his parishioners (guest star Sylvia Syms) is having sleepless nights for a different reason. She thinks her care home is haunted and wants Adam to perform an exorcism. Nigel, in particular is only too happy to oblige.

This is a slightly disjointed episode, but fans of Jimmy Akingbola from Holby will be very pleased to see him make his first appearance this series as Mick. He's only in one scene, but it's hilarious.

And the other revelation this week is getting to meet Adam's five-year-old god-daughter Enid (Olivia Riley). After just an hour with her and her blessed recorder (you may want ear-plugs) Adam and Alex (Olivia Colman) start to wonder whether having children of their own is such a good idea after all.

The real-life Rev fights back with tough love

Vicar Paul Turp, who inspired the hit BBC TV series Rev, confesses all.

It's clearly not November in the world of Rev - the vicars are hot under the dog collar, necking holy water and wafting fans under their cassocks as the temperature reaches its height. Rising out of the heat is the devil, causing most grief, inevitably, for Tom Hollander's beleaguered vicar Adam: old ladies are being haunted by ghosts, members of his flock claim to be possessed, plus he has tyrannical god daughter round to stay, forcing him to question whether fatherhood is really for him.

There can be little argument, after tonight's episode, that this sitcom about the long-suffering vicar of an inner-city church - which is currently midway through its second series - is among the funniest things on television. It begins with the vicar, Adam (Tom Hollander) rising with a start from a hilariously saucy nightmare only to find that his waking life is no less strange, with an elderly parishioner demanding an exorcism for her new room. Watch out especially for a scene involving the parish's malevolent archdeacon (Simon McBurney) and a lavatory full of snakes.

Dreaming of being a mother, Alex gets a chance to try out her parenting skills when a friend's daughter, Enid, comes to stay. She's not a charming child: "Shut up, I hate you!" It's all made worse by the fact that London is in the grip of a heatwave and an exhausted Adam is suffering with nightmares. With a storyline involving an elderly parishioner (Sylvia Syms) who's convinced her nursing home bedroom is haunted, an episode that has fun with the more eldritch currents of parish life.