If anything Extras seems to have got better if the second series opener is anything to go by. The humour is still at times watch through the fingers but the characters seems more rounded this time round and there are genuine dramatic moments amidst the mirth.

The slight irony here is that the sitcom within a sitcom that our “hero” Andy Millman is getting so fraught about actually seems a damn sight funnier than so much of the BBC’s real comedy output.

Rumour had it that this second series could be the last, but if the BBC has got any sense at all it’ll be ensuring that Gervais and Merchants are signed up for their next project.


The sketch show isn’t dead after all

There have been so many appalling sketch shows over the years that I’ve come to dread them.

Not being a devotee of Peep Show I approached That Mitchell and Webb Look with some trepidation. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find myself chuckling through most of it, though some of the impact was lost by the fact hat the best sketches had been trailed to death for the last month or so.

This show cleverly shoves the edgy and the downright silly into the mix, and the supporting cast help too with Olivia Colman stealing nearly every scene she’s in.


If you can’t stand the heat

Ramsey’s back in Hell’s Kitchen USA and thankfully his style remains as unrestrained as ever, with seemingly no attempt by our cousins across the pond to dilute his style. The trouble is it’s getting a bit predictable now. One way of holding the interest that we’ve employed at Hogan Towers is guessing how long into each episode he can get before referring to someone as 'Big Boy'.

While Ramsey’s clunkly macho persona at least seems genuine, the problem is that because he’s been so successful, it seems other celeb chefs seem to think they need to ape his style.

That can be the only explanation for somewhat aggressive style of John Torode and Gregg Wallace in Celebrity Masterchef. Their particular brand of presentation would seem better suited to Best the Burgler if you ask me.

I wish they’d got some people who could actually cook in, as contestants other than people who only seem to be famous at all because they pop up on these type of shows. Unsurprisingly David Grant was there, just days after being shown failing Graham Taylor’s football trial in The Match.

As for axed soccer pundit Graham Le Saux, since when was pan frying a piece of salmon so impressive? According to the judges he even over cooked that while one of the fame seeking Hervey Sisters – I’m not even sure I care which one – claimed never to have cooked a sausage before.

I've no problem with seeing Paul Young on the telly but I'd rather he was singing a song than rustling up a starter.

The whole show is yet another example of dumbing down and television’s strange obsession with celebrity. It would be understandable if the celebs were actually famous or even interesting but as they aren’t, why not just have normal people who actually know their way round a kitchen.


Firing on one cylinder

Maybe I’m being overly critical of a drama that certainly had it’s heart in the right place, but despite a great cast and a worthy idea Losing It felt very much like a work in progress rather than the finished article, a feeling not helped by the abrupt ending which wasn’t really an ending at all, to such an extent that I was half expected there to be a part two.

Dependable Martin Clunes was great as stoic cancer suffering ad man Phil, putting on a brave face over his illness while his missus, played wonderfully by Holly Aird was left to deal with the emotional fall out while her hubby feared being marginalised at work.

The problem was the pacing of the thing which plodded along for an hour before cramming loads into the last part. Basically a worthy piece with a great cast but ultimately unsatisfying.

In the end it just left me pining for new episodes of Doc Martin


Parenthood

Mention the name Peter Davison to me and it conjures up three images: a bloke with his arm up a cow’s bottom, a bloke travelling the cosmos in a Police Box accompanied by a lippy Aussie and Button Moon, a cheap and nasty kids show but with a great theme tune which he sang.

I’d forgotten just how good he was at comedy until The Complete Guide to Parenting came along and turned out to be one of the funniest things on telly yet this year.

Having worked with animals in the seventies, Davison continues to deft the adage here by working with a class full of kids and the results were hilarious and gloriously lacking in political correctness. Great to see Josie Lawrence back on screen too.