Stella

Could this be third-season lucky-in-love for Welsh valley girl Stella? Ruth Jones is centre stage again in the warm-hearted comedy that returns tonight bathed in an optimistic glow. Stella's got herself a brilliant new job as a nurse and her fledglings are all back in the nest. The only thing that ails our Pontyberry lass is an acute case of singledom. Then again, a divorced lawyer (Patrick Baladi) has just pitched up next door, setting the scene for a spot of romcom sparring.

Radio Times review

Back into the light embrace of Pontyberry for a third series of Ruth Jones's comedy drama, which always manages to be comforting and inoffensive without being twee.

Stella (Jones herself) has long since moved on from the series two finale, when she said goodbye to the love of her life, Rob, because even he couldn't compete with her home town in the valleys and the people who live there.

Now she's training to be a nurse under a brisk sergeant-major of an instructor, and repeatedly arguing with a haughty new posh bloke she'll obviously end up sleeping with.

Emma applies for a job as a hairdresser, Aunty Bren's long-lost daughter returns, and Alan is told Little Alan must go on a diet. Basically nothing much happens, and it's delightful.

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Best writer was Ruth Jones for comedy series Stella. Backstage she said: "I'm really surprised at how, like, in shock I am... I can't speak I'm so excited. The competition in the category was incredible... this is really exciting."

With a third series already limbering up, there are bound to be plenty of cliff-hangers tonight as the warm-hearted Pontyberry delight written by and starring Ruth Jones bows out with a double-episode finale. With the good - and not so good - folk of the town still picking up the pieces of their lives after the blistering bust-ups of Fight Night, the focus is on the future. Will Emma forgive Sunil? Is the final nail in the coffin for Paula now Dai's declared he wants a divorce? Will Big Al ever win at anything? And, with Rob poised to push off once more, what will become of Stella? There will be tears...

Ruth Jones's small-town saga has lost none of its charm or wit in this second series - and it's repeated the trick of building up stories that run seamlessly from episode to episode. Tonight's double bill finishes off the current run.

The central tale is the love life of Stella (Jones herself), which predictably is complicated by something unpredictable, but Emma and Sunil are hitting crisis point too. Series three is on the way, so the story - happily - doesn't end here.

Ruth Jones's soft-centred drama enjoys a pugilistic diversion tonight as Steve Speirs takes the writing credit for an episode that puts Big Alan in the centre of the action. While Stella feels like boxing Rob's ears for letting son Luke loose in the ring at Pontyberry's fight night, Big Alan is girding his loins for a life-changing battle on two fronts: the custody of Little Alan and the future of his precious rugby club.

Fight night in Pontyberry. Not just hotheads Luke and Lenny clashing in the ring over Zoe, but Big Alan squaring up for a scrap over his beloved rugby club. We know there's a rousing, Churchillian speech in the offing, and it's well worth the wait. It's an Alan-heavy episode, and that's no surprise: Steve Speirs, who plays him so brilliantly, is also this week's writer.

But that's the great thing about Stella star and creator Ruth Jones, who distributes plotlines among her ensemble cast with equanimity. And it works perfectly for the cheek-by-jowl world of Pontyberry, where everyone knows everyone's else's business: look out for an unsuitable choir rehearsal in the room above the undertaker's.

Stella's helping out at the undertakers while Paula takes some time off to commune with the divine spirit, but her first funeral doesn't go to plan. Luke is unwisely seeing Zoe behind her maniac boyfriend's back and Dai isn't missing Paula half as much as she thinks he is. There's a bit of a scene at a Got To Dance audition, allowing Ashley Banjo to make another creaky cameo (Sky1 are masters of cross-promotion), while even Paul Kaye tones it down a bit this week in his one scene as the zany Dutch therapist. Nice.

Another week, another effortlessly funny 60 minutes. Loss of control features prominently this week: Luke and forbidden-fruit Zoe take it to the next level; lovelorn Dai feels the long arm of the law from WPC Glover; and looks could kill when a taste-free funeral that Stella has booked goes hilariously awry. As fraught undertaker Bobby, Aled Pugh spins gold out of all his lines, especially his retort when Stella suggests a calming massage.

On the dramatic side, Stella's ex, the ever-composed Rob (Mark Lewis Jones), makes friends and dispenses wisdom, while withholding a big secret that will make him Pontyberry's Public Enemy Number One. Will he do the right thing?