Tragedy hits the cul-de-sac tonight with the sudden loss of one of its residents, but it's a tribute to the resilience of Sarah Hooper's amiable series that it does not miss a beat, or suffer a plunge in tone, as it handles the funeral and aftermath. Equally devastating is news about the demolition of the ice rink, inadvertently revealed by the indiscreet vicar. A cast of old hands, from Bobby Ball to Paula Wilcox, ably handle the material, delivered with the very antithesis of EastEnders' morose sturm und drang.

The first series of this domestic sitcom set in the Manchester suburbs was too cosy and MOR for its own good but at least this second series feels better placed in its new home on Sky Living. All the regulars are back, including chirpy Lisa (Sally Lindsay), and her overbearing parents, played by Pauline Quirke and Bobby Ball.

Alongside dialogue about being "twatted with an iron bar", there's Pauline Collins being mumsy and Bobby Ball talking about his toilet issues. Sarah Hooper's suburban comedy drama is painted with such broad brushstrokes the result is a weird hybrid of Shameless and Terry and June. The cast is culled from every soapy drama you've ever seen and joined in the second series by Casualty's Claire Goose who Lisa (Sally Lindsay) befriends at the gym, and George Sampson as Jim's teenage son Gary. Shame it doesn't produce the laughs it should.

The residents of Mount Pleasant open the doors of their pristine northern houses for a second series of suburban shenanigans. Shelley's getting a divorce, Denise has got a baby and the cul-de-sac is about to get a hot new neighbour in the shape of Robson Green. And Britain's Got Talent's tiny dancer George Sampson graduates to his first role in the opening episode. It's gentle-enough stuff, populated by the best actors the genre has to offer - Sally Lindsay, Angela Griffin and Bobby Ball are among the likable faces.

We're heading back up to Manchester this week for the second series of foul-mouthed but fun comedy drama Mount Pleasant, which has found a new home on Sky Living. Northern treasures Sally Lindsay, Daniel Ryan, Bobby Ball and Angela Griffin are all back on board, while the episode also welcomes Casualty's Claire Goose (remember her?) as a troublesome new friend of Lisa's (Lindsay) and Britain's Got Talent imp George Sampson as Bianca's (Sian Reeves) stepson Gary. If you've got nowt to do on Wednesday, stick on a brew, get in some scran and have a buzz to Mount Pleasant (did we get that right, Manchester?).

Bobby Ball returns tonight to stir up more trouble as Lee's dad. This time he's in a wheelchair, covered head to toe with plaster, and in possession of some pain relief that can only be administered where the sun don't shine. That's the source of some obvious gags, but Lee Mack and Tim Vine play out the farce with their usual, splendid verve.

How many gags can you think of about suppositories?

Not as many as Lee Mack and his writing partner Daniel Peak, I'll bet.

Recurring guest star Bobby Ball, who plays Lee's errant father Frank, returns tonight for an episode crammed full of buttock-clenching humour.

Frank's got both his arms and legs in plaster after being hit by a bus and he's looking for a roof over his head, as well as a little pain relief and TLC.

But there's no love lost between father and son and Lee wouldn't touch his dad with a barge pole at the best of times.

I can't help thinking that a lot of unpleasantness could probably have been avoided if landlady Lucy had just bought paracetamol in the first place.

Bobby Ball guests as Lee's wastrel dad, who arrives at the flat - almost top to toe in plaster - to throw himself upon his son's mercy. But Lee's mercy is strained, non-existent, even, particularly when dad needs a painkiller that cannot be taken orally and which has to be inserted, ahem, elsewhere.

You'll have gathered that this is comedy as broad as the M62. Luckily, Lee Mack just about gets away with a stream of gags about backsides; some are genuinely funny, some are just rank. If it's sophistication you're after, it's probably best to look elsewhere.

The brilliant Bobby Ball is back as Lee's (Lee Mack) wayward father Frank in this gently amusing sitcom. He turns up on the doorstep unannounced, in a wheelchair and asking to stay. Lee wants rid but Lucy (Sally Bretton) takes pity and invites him in. When Tim (Tim Vine) and his father (Geoffrey Whitehead) drop round to watch the cricket, their relationship inspires Lee and Frank into some father-son bonding.

When a secretary wrongly assumes Lisa is pregnant, the good news is broadcast around the cul de sac quicker than you can say: I'm just a bit tubby. Her thrilled parents - played by a deliciously batty Pauline Collins and Bobby Ball - are soon banning Lisa from eating cream cheese ("do you want your baby to be born with pigeon feet?") to her and hubby Dan's utter mystification. Meanwhile, Shelley decides that her biological clock is also ticking ...

It's a giggle. Unfortunately, Mount Pleasant isn't content to be a farce and the scenes that strive to be more sentimental fall flat. Watching Lisa and Dan in the bath, swigging wine and singing along to Oasis's Live Forever, you can't help wishing Collins and Ball would pop in with a dopey gag.