Alexander Armstrong

Fans of Father Ted and The Vicar of Dibley might recoil from the relatively gritty realism of this new six-part ecclesiastical sitcom. Tom Hollander stars as the Reverend Adam Smallbone, a country vicar who takes over an inner-city parish and finds himself tested by a very modern set of moral dilemmas. In episode one, it's the miracle of a good Ofsted report that fills his church with parents of little faith but a genuine fervour to get their children into the church school. When someone throws a bottle through the stained glass window causing £30,000 worth of damage, the Rev has a range of fund-raising ideas from a bring-and-buy sale to sitting on the church roof until someone pays for him to come down. "I think you might be up there for some considerable time," opines Simon McBurney's iPhone-equipped archdeacon. The Rev's best bet is a spot of horse trading with the local MP (Alexander Armstrong), which could bring in the cash in return for a school place for the politician's son. But ought a vicar to be a little more high-minded in how he goes about God's restoration work? Hollander previously donned clergyman's robes in 2005 to play Jane Austen's obsequious Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice, but he's much more of a baffled everyman here. The script could use a little of Austen's light touch, though. Do vicar's wives really talk about "bashing the bishop"?

A new sitcom about an inner-city London vicar may not sound promising, but Rev is laugh-out-loud funny. At its heart lies Adam Smallbone (Tom Hollander), whose congregation is suddenly swelled by the "on your knees, avoid the fees" brigade when rumours spread that the church school is about to get a glowing Ofsted report. Both an exploration of British hypocrisy and a warmly played character piece with some terrific lines. With Olivia Colman and Alexander Armstrong.

Tom Hollander makes a bid here to join Derek Nimmo and Dawn French in the small but cosy pantheon of sitcom vicars. He plays the Reverend Adam Smallbone, a well-meaning, unshaven, east London clergyman who smokes, drinks enthusiastically and does the splits at parties, but is sweetly ineffectual in the face of the problems he faces. They include a domineering archdeacon and a rash of pushy parents hoping to get their children into "his" C of E school, whose headmistress Smallbone clearly fancies. It's a gentle, ragged sort of comedy, short on belly laughs but with enough character-led jokes to offer hope for good things to come. Alexander Armstrong brings his expert comic timing to the role of a bluff MP who is one of the "On your knees, avoid the fees" crowd. The wonderful Olivia Colman seems (so far) slightly wasted in the role of the vicar's wife, but given time, and given Hollander's rumpled charm in the lead, it could be a quiet winner.

Alexander Armstrong in baby dash

Alexander Armstrong made a quick dash out of the This Morning studio today - when he found out his wife was in labour.

Incredibly, this is the 20th anniversary and the 39th series of the BBC's flagship entertainment programme - the only entertainment programme that is consistently and genuinely entertaining. Paul Merton's unstoppable flow of surreal invention never seems to dry up, while Ian Hislop must be one of the few people on the planet who can appear on television suffering from a burst appendix and still manage to be funny. With an election looming, the big challenge of the new series - according to Richard Wilson, head of comedy at the production company Hat Trick - will be "to take the spectacularly dull things that politicians say and get laughs out of them". The host tonight is Lee Mack, with Alexander Armstrong and Jo Brand booked to appear later in the run.

This much I know: Alexander Armstrong

The comedian and actor, 40, on playing David Cameron in The Trial of Tony Blair, and his more famous father - a village doctor.

Alexander Armstrong: BBC shouldn't have axed Ross

The comedian Alexander Armstrong tells The Telegraph how filthy jokes can be funny - and why Jonathan Ross shouldn't have been forced out of the BBC.

The two jovial comedians continue their quest to be the new kings of sketch comedy with the fourth instalment in this series. Tonight's highlight is "Divorced Dad" insensitively telling his young son that the reason the girl his son likes hasn't replied to his text message is because she's "out of his league".

While not every sketch is a side-splitter, those that do make you laugh out loud tend to creep up behind you and catch you unawares. Take this week's "Origins". It starts slowly with a group of grunting cavemen cooking a mammoth and then suddenly spirals into some very cleverly observed silliness ridiculing dinner-party small talk. It's brilliant. The Victorian pianist sketch - in which Armstrong keeps breaking into inappropriate and raunchy pop songs that offend his genteel audience - is another sneaky one. Culture buff Dennis Lincoln-Park has another accident with an "absolutely priceless" relic. The fact that you know what's coming makes it even funnier. The Second World War pilots don't want to dig out of a PoW camp because "We can't do escaping, isn't it? Because I've got all my asthma and s*** and he's got issues round worms." And viewers called Fred or Mick might like to know that they get a special mention this week when Miller's character Tom does his stream of "variations on a name" routine.

It's gentle, it's cosy, it's very British, and above all, it's a sketch show that's funny. Hurrah for Armstrong and Miller!