The Kennedys had the tough job of following Have I Got News For You on BBC One. The Kennedys is based on the memoirs of journalist Emma Kennedy and just like Danny Baker's Cradle to Grave takes us back to the 1970s. Unlike Cradle to Grave, the family in The Kennedys isn't constantly shouting at each other and instead Emma's parents Brenda and Tony (Katherine Parkinson and Dan Skinner) are relatively demure when compared to their friends and neighbours. The opening episode sees Brenda live her aspirations of hosting the first dinner party in their small neighbourhood of Jessop Square. Brenda then instructs Tony to make a lasange, something that baffles him due to the fact that he has to use pasta that doesn't come from a tin. Tony asks friend Tim (Harry Peacock) to try and help him track down some pasta only to discover that his mate is conducting an affair. At the same time Brenda learns that Tim's girlfriend Jenny (Emma Pierson) is pregnant and hasn't told her other half yet. This perfectly sets up the comedy goldmine that is the awkward dinner party which includes Tim spending the entire meal bare-chested and his lover walking in on the meal to threaten physical violence against most of the guests. I was surprised by how much I liked The Kennedys and I think it had a certain sense of innocence that you don't see in sitcoms any more. That may have something to do with the fact that the comedy has a pre-teen protagonist in Lucy Hutchinson's Emma, with the young actress proving to be a comic revelation. Meanwhile the reliable Skinner and Parkinson were an absolute delight to watch as the social climbing parents with the former pulling off a great Welsh accent. Whether or not The Kennedys can keep the momentum of this first episode going remains to be seen but on first impressions this is a refreshingly likeable old-fashioned sitcom.

Danny Bakers autobiographical 1970s sitcom continues, and things are looking up: he's captain of the school football team during a cup run and Miss Blondel, the alluring French teacher who runs the photography club, seems to be receptive to his clumsy advances. But when forced to choose between his sporting and romantic ambitions, Danny's decision doesn't go down well with PE teacher Mr Glover (guest star John Henshaw). Elsewhere, dad Spud struggles to raise the tin required for Sharon's wedding.

Danny Baker's cosy sitcom-memoir is starting to feel more like a TV show than a pile of anecdotes, with not quite so many gags you'd say were cliched or telegraphed if an unknown writer had invented them. Young Danny rashly agrees to buy a hot VCR - has he inherited the knack of quickly finding a few quid? Meanwhile, magic patriarch Fred tries to steal a shipment of sherry from under the noses of the docks' new jobsworth security guards. Peter Kay's south London accent is bedding in too, slowly.

Director of Cradle to Grave praises show's soundtrack

The show directed by Sandy Johnson, is based on the memoirs of DJ Danny Baker about growing up in south London in the 1970s and features music by Glasgow rocker Alex Harvey.

Wide boys and wider collars: the excellent, atmospheric recreation of Danny Baker's teen years in south London continues. Danny is trying to blag his way into the pub for a sniff of Skol, while his mother Bet yearns for something more - to broaden her horizons, meet new people, maybe even try drinking wine. But dad Spud can't see the angle. If hearing a cockney accent emerge from Peter Kay was initially distracting, he's now settled comfortably into the roly-poly role of incorrigible wheeler-dealer Spud.

Cradle to Grave, episode two, BBC Two, review

This comedy based on the childhood of writer and broadcaster Danny Baker was successful in breathing the essence of growing up in the 1970s, says Gerard O'Donovan.

Cradle to Grave was enjoyable, but little more. Liked it, but perhaps I'd had enough of the perfections of 70s recreation. Perhaps I've just never been that in love with Danny Baker, whose story of a Bermondsey adolescence was way less magical than Lenny Henry's. Loved the tortoise and the tipping teapots though. Possibly a sentence never to be written again.

Cradle to Grave was set in the 1970s as we watched the teenage exploits of a young Danny Baker as he attempted to navigate adolescence. Although this was essentially the story of the teenage Danny (played here by Laurie Kynaston) most of the screen time was eaten up by his father Spud (Peter Kay). Spud was written as the stereotypical sitcom patriarch who was always after the next scheme whether it be selling embalming fluid as Schnapps or stuffing his house full of continental quilts to sell to the neighbourhood. The problem with Spud's stories is that they tended not to fit into the rest of the episode meaning that Baker and co-writer Jeff Pope had to shoehorn them. In was this almost anecdotal narrative that spoilt Cradle to Grave for me as it felt like a sketch show about Baker's life rather than a pure half hour comedy episode. Attempts to tie all the stories together by incorporating a trip to the theatre to see 'Hair' didn't really work even though the musical scene itself did provide the episode's biggest laugh. The other issue I had with Cradle to Grave was the casting of Peter Kay in the lead role of Spud. Although I understand that getting a big name helps to attract viewers, proud Northerner Kay playing old school Londoner Spud didn't ring true. The fact that Kay was struggling with the accent led him to almost shout all of his lines and in the process turned what could've been a rather realistic 1970s dad into a comedy caricature. It's a shame because underneath all the mess there were decent glimpses of a coming-of-age comedy about a youngster who wasn't quite sure of his place in the world. I have to admit than whenever Laurie Kynaston was on screen by himself Cradle to Grave was at its strongest. However the over-reliance on the larger-than-life Spud and the fragmented narrative meant that Cradle to Grave had a rather confused tone which meant that I could never fully relax into it.

Cradle to Grave was, in comparison to Danny and the Human Zoo, a similarly refractive concoction, a picaresque of the young life of the DJ and celebrity Danny Baker, written in part by Baker and based on his own memoir. Once again we were thrust in to the so-bad-they-were-good Seventies, as the Chopper bike tootling past in the background made plain, but we'd shifted from Dudley to east London and from one wide-eyed Danny boy to another. Sensibly, Baker and his co-writer Jeff Pope used this young Danny as the window on the world, not as a protagonist - he existed mainly as a voice-over setting the scene for the various travails of the Baker family. Instead, the main character was Danny's father Fred, played by Peter Kay as part Arthur Daley, part Del Boy. Mostly, though, he was Peter Kay, barely bothering with a cockney accent but still blessed with the single funniest face on television, one of the few men who can make me laugh with the sound off.

Cradle to Grave was funnier than Danny and the Human Zoo, and it managed to achieve the crucial balance of being fond of its characters without ever worshipping them. Yet just as with Danny and the Human Zoo, and its association with Lenny Henry, I found the fact that Cradle to Grave was based on the life of Danny Baker a distraction. Essentially, both of these shows were self-congratulatory because they all came from the perspective of the viewer knowing that, ultimately, both of these Lenny/Dannys have done pretty good. Self-congratulation is what humour should be mocking, not the stuff of humour itself.

Danny Baker defends Peter Kay's cockney accent

Surprised by Peter Kay's 'Gor blimey!' Cockney accent in BBC Two's Cradle To Grave? Series creator Danny Baker says you'll get used to it.