Two Doors Down

A timely return for the Scottish sitcom that mines wicked humour from its cosy cul-de-sac setting. Perpetually put-upon hostess Beth (Arabella Weir) is entertaining the neighbours again, this time for a Burns Night blowout. But while her hubby Eric (Alex Norton) anticipates some poetry and pomp, everyone else seems more interested in assessing the redecorated downstairs loo. With prickly social barbs, lewd observations and an excess of whisky, the bawdy Ploughman Poet himself would likely approve.

Two Doors Down: Doon Mackichan steals the show

Doon Mackichan steals the show in this Burns Night horror.

Two Doors Down is fun with a strong cast

Two Doors Down (BBC Two) originally arrived on New Year's Eve 2013 as a one-hour, one-off comedy about a Hogmanay gathering gone wrong. It returned for a third series last night with an episode about another Scottish institution, Burns Night, complete with haggis, tatties and malt whisky, and proceeded to lacerate it for the next half hour.

Two Doors Down canters ahead of most sitcoms by virtue of being well acted, sharply scripted, featuring (some) great one-liners and overall being, generally, on the cusp of humour rather than the cusp of, say, forcing oneself to rip out one's own carotid artery with a rusty potato-peeler. For that you still need Mrs Brown's Boys, that's still yer man.

As ever, a pleasing mix of traditional and contemporary is delivered by this Scottish comedy. Never mind us viewers, surely by now not even Beth and Eric themselves can be surprised that their plans for a peaceful Christmas - just the two of them - will be ruined, with amusing consequences. This year, a strike by French air traffic controllers brings them unexpected guests. Their turkey crown is stretched as far as Eric's patience.

BBC Two's Two Doors Down has it all. Wit, delight, long awkward silences, burps, bacon-farts. Writers Gregor Sharp and Simon Carlyle have encapsulated a satellite Scottish suburb with joy and finesse: it's crude but it's loving. Most characters are normal. Two are accidental monsters. Cathy (Doon Mackichan) and Christine (Elaine C Smith) dominate every social interaction with that sublime lack of tact that just makes you want to cheer and then put a drunken gun to your head and pull the trigger. Lovely to see Maurice Roëves back.

Sunday lunch. A time to relax, loosen your belt and dispel concerns about anything more weighty than achieving optimal gravy distribution. Sadly, that doesn't quite apply at the Bairds' home. Beth and Eric abandon all hope of a soothing Sabbath when a simmering tiff between Cathy and Colin burbles into outright hostility. Not only that, but Christine won't let the lack of an invite stop her from joining the lunch table for lamb and all the trimmings. Plus chips.

In the first in a new series of the woeful Scottish sitcom, Christine is bowled over when she receives an unexpectedly sizeable PPI payout, so Cathy persuades her that the occasion should be suitably marked with some kind of party. At short notice, Eric and Beth reluctantly throw a barbecue punctuated with some souvenirs from Cathy and Colin's recent cruise around the Med. Every bit as funny as Mrs Brown's Boys (make of that what you will).