Caroline Quentin

The premise of this new comedy series starring Caroline Quentin as Maddy Riley, a recently married woman trying to foster a relationship with her stepchildren, is so tired it's practically slipping on its bedsocks. The funniest cast member in this opening episode is Maddy's young son Ted (Patrick Nolan), who's trying to impress a girl he likes by stealing leg wax and denture paste for her. Is the girl in question his schoolfriend Ella? "Ella's eight, I'm nine," Ted tells his mother. "We have nothing in common."

Out to Lunch is followed by satirical sitcom On the Blog about a desperate frustrated 37-year-old nerd who sits around in his underpants while working at (aka playing with) his computer. Caroline Quentin provides the voice of the nerd's psychotic, ferret-killing, Czechoslovakian mother. It could have been a crass disaster, but instead it's a laugh-out-loud delight.

This amusing comedy takes aim at the many and varied idiocies of the internet. It centres on a computer nerd, Andrew Glasgow (played by co-writer Andy Taylor), who lives at home with his scary Czech mother (Caroline Quentin).

Back for a second series is a very funny sitcom called On the Blog, with Andy Taylor as a computer nerd living at home with his formidable Czech mother, played by Caroline Quentin.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the magical mystery series Jonathan Creek (BBC1) ended, to general regret. There is a touch of the Mulder-and-Scullys about the heroes, but oxygenated with common sense and comedy. At one point Caroline Quentin found herself at a nudist tea party. Every orifice was demurely hidden by china and cake. The tea pot was, I thought, particularly apropos.