This Is Jinsy

This Is Jinsy was as brilliant as ever

I'll admit I approached the return of This Is Jinsy with fanboy trepidation.

A welcome return of the surreal comedy set on the fictional island of Jinsy. In the opener of this double bill, Arbiter Maven (Justin Chubb) is due for his Follication Ceremony, but his vanity gets the better of him as he uses a hair potion whose growth properties rage out of control. Stephen Fry guests as Dr Bevelspepp, relishing the rich dialogue, full of "herbal unguents" and suchlike. In the second, in which the island's bookkeeping is thrown into crisis by a racism scandal, Ben Miller appears as both the chief accountant and his daughter.

Featuring a talent competition judged by a dog, a truly hair-raising chase sequence and guest turns from Stephen Fry as a luxuriantly locked hair doctor and Ben Miller as a busty accountant's daughter (and her dad), life in Jinsy is as wonderfully bizarre as it was first time around. So it's a warm welcome back for Justin Chubb and Chris Bran's inspired mix of crackers characters, singing obituaries and catchy tunes. Top of the Jinsy Hit Parade in this opening double bill are the skiffle-tastic Was It You? and torch song Vegetable Tricks - and you also get to see what Greg Davies looks like in a skirt, in case you'd been wondering.

Stand by your tesselators for series two of the surreal sitcom. Fans of its lunatic thatch of The Wicker Man and Mighty Boosh will be pleased to know its formula is unchanged: crazy tale interspersed with beautifully crafted diversions.

To the uninitiated, This Is Jinsy is set on a fictional island, isolated in behaviour, religion and technology from the rest of the world. Parking meter-style tesselators spout vaguely sinister pronouncements about clothing, food or furniture, and entertainment takes the form of a talent contest presided over by a dog called Sandy.

The butt of nearly all the jokes is Arbiter Maven (Justin Chubb), a ludicrous popinjay whose disastrous follication ceremony in the first of this double bill leads to some hairy, Doctor Who-style horrors. And it's his more intelligent assistant, Sporall (Chris Bran), with his brown 70s suit and luxuriant 70s hair, who gets in most of the jibes.

This Is Jinsy may be the very definition of cult, but it's one that attracts Big Names. Stephen Fry is in the opener as a hair-museum curator, Ben Miller plays a feral accountant in the second episode; Eileen Atkins and Derek Jacobi will pop in later in the run.

Tracee Henge's Unwinese weather forecasts are especially fine, and the mad songs are as MP3-friendly as ever.

Justin Chubb and Chris Bran interview

As series two begins, we talk to the men whose strange little creation attracts guest performances from the likes of Stephen Fry, Olivia Colman and Derek Jacobi.

This Is Jinsy: Comedy gold on fantasy island

Cult sitcom This Is Jinsy has attracted TV's biggest names. Gerard Gilbert visits the surreal show's creators on set.

This Is Jinsy's greatest hits

It's Britain's answer to Flight of the Conchords - we pick our top five Jinsy songs.

This comedy series is a curious mix of The League of Gentlemen and The Mighty Boosh, but falls short of both. Devised by and starring Justin Chubb and Chris Bran, it's certainly like nothing else around. Tonight's episode finds a folk-thrash band causing a stir on the other-worldly Jinsy, the imaginary island on which the series is set.