Grandma's House, Rev, Roger and Val Have Just Got In and now this. It's the latest artful, up-market sitcom from BBC2, written like a comedy but filmed like a drama. It will leave some viewers disappointed if they're expecting big gags or hearty laughs, but it will draw others in because (a) it's got the lovable Alan Davies in the lead, and (b) there's something engaging about its setting and characters - the staff of a swanky rural restaurant. The establishment is called The White House after its chef Roland White, played by Davies with a straggly hair-do and a patchy beard that may or may not be modelled on Marco Pierre of the same name. Unusually for a chef, Roland is laid-back and apparently lacking in passion - he's more interested in recording notes for his meat-based memoirs ("Chapter Two: Black Pudding," he announces into his dictaphone) than helping out in the chaotic kitchens. Katherine Parkinson plays his long-suffering maître d', who struggles to keep him in line, and Darren Boyd his uptight sous-chef. As ever with the first episode of a new sitcom, there's more appetiser than entrée, but it bodes well for flavourful fare to come.

Alan Davies is a love him or hate him kind of actor, but Whites shows just how likable and nuanced he can be. More surprisingly here, perhaps, since he stars as Roland White, an "executive chef" in a high-end restaurant. White is, needless to say, an offal-crazed gastronome with mad hair, but he's not a monster, and that speaks well of the subtleties of this very funny show co-written by Matt "Super Hans" King. Able support comes from Katherine Parkinson and Stephen Wight as weird, ambitious new chef Skoose.

Few people would dream of casting mild-mannered QI dunce Alan Davies in the role of a fiery gastronomic hellhound à la Gordon Ramsay or Marco Pierre White. But it is one of the many delights and revelations of this enjoyable new comedy that Davies so excellently fleshes out the role of Roland White, a fictional, once-pyrotechnic chef now fizzling out his days at a country house hotel. He's accompanied by his loyal and long-suffering sous chef, Bib (nicely played by Darren Boyd), flame-haired (and tongued) restaurant manager Caroline (Katherine Parkinson of The IT Crowd), sinister wannabe genius Skoose (Stephen Wightp) and clueless hotel owner Celia (Maggie Steed). It's co-written by Peep Show's Matt King, and much of the comedy is based on his pre-fame experiences of working in restaurant kitchens. Enhancing the ring of truth, the cast spent days training at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant in London. Despite the infernal kitchen setting, this is mostly gentle character-based comedy, but with an edge of sharpened steel that keeps the laughs coming all the time. Roland gets a lot of the best lines, though in the great British comic tradition he also manages to be the butt of most of them - as in tonight's opener, in which he records his never-to-be-commissioned memoirs. A very welcome addition to Tuesday nights.

He's a versatile man, is Alan Davies. He plays the fool in QI, a magician/detective in Jonathan Creek and has just relived his revolutionary teen years for documentary purposes. For this new sitcom he's in actorly mode again, playing a hotel head chef called Roland White - any relation to Marco Pierre? - who goes against the grain of the highly stressed Gordon Ramsays of this world by being a bit of a slacker. Also stars Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd) and Isy Suttie (Dobby from Peep Show).

Along with Stephen Fry's quiz questions on the letter H tonight, it would be quite interesting to find out why the erudite Gyles Brandreth has taken seven years to make his second appearance on this show as a panellist. Also risking the blare of the klaxons for only the second time is comedienne Sue Perkins, who appeared earlier this year. Bill Bailey completes the trio of promising guests lined up to discuss esoterica with Fry and Alan Davies.

Tonight one of QI's infrequent female panellists, Sue Perkins, fresh from dusting the flour off her dainty hands in The Great British Bake Off, joins the boys. She's sparky and funny and will be more than capable of holding her own with those noisy, competitive lads. They are, of course, question master Stephen Fry and genial regular Alan Davies, here with Gyles Brandreth (so garrulous he never knowingly uses two words when he can use 20) and frequent panellist Bill Bailey, who is always good value as he dallies with the esoteric, the surreal and the downright daft.

Davies doesn't like TV swearing

Alan Davies has urged foul-mouthed TV chefs to stop swearing.

Alan Davies interview

The Jonathan Creek star swaps his duffle coat for whites in a new BBC2 sitcom in which he plays a past-his-prime chef...

The closest you'll ever be to diving into an encyclopaedia and then surface, drenched in knowledge and needing to wipe facts about the Periodic Table from the corners of your eyes, is by watching this still-spiffing comedy panel show. Tonight Stephen Fry will set Alan Davies, Ross Noble, Jack Dee, and Phill Jupitus questions relating to the letter H, which means obscure questions on hacky sacks, the Roman soldier Horatio, and H out of Steps.

Who is tvBite's least favourite person on QI this week? Alan Davies? KLAXON NOISE. Why, this week it's Phill Jupitus. Phil's 25th appearance on the show brings him level with Jo Brand as most-used guest. He moves above Alan as most annoying person because of that book where he claims to have invented great radio, despite presenting one of the most irritating shows ever. Maybe DJs should be allowed to choose their own music but they should also SHUT UP and not carry on in an annoying nasal whine. Even more annoying, Phill shouldn't have even been on the show but Sean Lock was stranded on the Isle Of Man.

Anyway, that's by the by. We like QI, in general and it is back with series H. (By the way, prepare yourself for an autumn of wistful mellow fruitiness because Stephen Fry will be everywhere. He has a book to flog and a live Albert Hall show to publicise). The episode is titled Hodge Podge, the other guests are Jack Dee, Ross Noble and over all there are many worse ways to begin your weekend.