David Chater

Comedy Showcase is one of Channel 4's most valuable strands. By broadcasting standalone comedies, it's about as close as television gets nowadays to giving established and up-and-coming comic writers the right to fail. Inevitably this freedom results in much riskier and more innovative work, and the first round of programmes in 2007 led to series commissions for The Kevin Bishop Show, Plus One and Free Agents. The curtain-raiser in this new series was written by Victoria Pile of Green Wing fame. It is, in fact, exactly like the surreal hospital- set comedy series, but transferred to a university setting, with the same heady mix of bizarre characters, savage banter, surreal fantasy and bracing filth. Anyone who enjoyed Green Wing should feel immediately at home.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb return for the sixth series of their sitcom. It continues to follow the life and times of the anorak and the wastrel, although by now the characters are getting longer in the tooth. The credit crunch has hit Croydon, the twentysomethings have turned into thirtysomethings, fatherhood looms on the horizon and the anorak celebrates his promotion at work by splashing out on a boiler. Unlike a classic comedy that appeals to all ages, Peep Show targets a peer group who identify with the preoccupations and insecurities of the characters expressed through internal monologues. "[Its success] has a lot to do with being honest about what your life is like and the reality of living in London," says Mitchell.

This was a promising idea for a comedy series. Gaynor returns to her parents' home in Coventry after ten years in London. She left home on her 18th birthday to start a new life, burning her bridges and losing all contact with family and friends. Now she's back with her tail between her legs, feeling bruised and vulnerable and unsure about how everyone will react to her return. It was co-written by and stars the comedian Emma Fryer, who says: "I realised anyone can move away and re-invent themselves. But the people you grew up with know the truth. They've seen you doing a rap about recycling in school assembly." Unfortunately, it sounds better than it is. Comedy and drama can work together seamlessly, but it is unsettling when the two are jostling for pole position.

One of the best things about this new comedy series is that it doesn't have an idiot laughter track. Nor is it recorded in front of an audience, which is another trick that producers use to generate artificial hype. Lunch Monkeys takes place in the postroom of a personal-injury law firm, which offers a kind of sanctuary for school leavers, oddballs and assorted misfits. They are demented with boredom and spend all day behaving like unruly fifth formers, which places Nigel Havers - the firm's senior partner - in the role of a headmaster. The writer David Isaac drew on his own experience working as a supervising solicitor in a Manchester law firm. It's broad, good-humoured, knockabout comedy without a subtle bone in its body. Technically speaking, it is somewhere between painless and quite good fun.

First shown last Christmas, this tremendous documentary tells the Blackadder story, describing the evolution of the main characters, not least Blackadder's transition from nerdy idiot to suave Elizabethan courtier. Tribute is paid to the vital contribution made by Miranda Richardson in her role as Queenie. Hugh Laurie acknowledges his high levels of stress. Then there are all the tensions that came from having so many creative people fighting their corner. "I remember it like a heart attack," Richard Curtis says.

For years now television experts have been handing out advice on how to cook, decorate, garden, dress, clean, save money and make love. There is no aspect of our lives that a tacky lifestyle programme made on the cheap cannot address, and the more colourful the presenter, the more popular the series. So here is a resumé of television experts down the ages, from Fanny Craddock and Sir Patrick Moore to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Gordon Ramsay. As a collection of pretty ordinary clips, it is no better or worse than the original programmes. It is made bearable by the fruity wickedness of Brian Sewell, who goes down the list of experts being deliciously rude about everyone with scant disregard for the laws of libel.

Even if you don't happen to enjoy the surreal exuberance of this wacky game show, there are consolations. Principal among them is the mournful presence of Jack Dee. With a face like a doomed horse he does nothing other than pretend to look miserable. It's a classic example of "less is more" - whenever the camera focuses on his gloom, it's like an ice-pack applied to a migraine. Matt Lucas continues to give a magnificent panto performance as the drum-playing baby. But once again, the show stopper is the new regular guest Dan Skinner as a burger-bar owner. You can almost smell the rancid fat clinging to his clothes.

Tonight, BBC Two is screening all six episodes of the first series of The Office, the landmark comedy that transformed the sound of fingernails being dragged down a blackboard into laughter. And like the commentary on a DVD, the episodes are interspersed with insights from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the co-stars Martin Freeman, Lucy Davis and Mackenzie Crook, and famous fans including Richard Curtis, Ben Stiller and Hugh Jackman.

The only possible reason to watch this series would be to see the clips, since the talking heads say nothing of any interest and the linking commentary from Clive Anderson is laboured and clumsy. But not even the clips are funny tonight, unlike those on earlier programmes about politicians and animals. How many times can anyone watch a person falling over on live TV or see presenters dying on air before it becomes repetitive? It also relies heavily for its material on programmes hosted by Noel Edmonds or series such as The Word and The Big Breakfast, which are the kind of programmes that give populism a bad name. Still, it looks set to liven up next week, with Brian Sewell being rude about television experts.

Shooting Stars will continue to polarise opinion more than any other show on television. Larry Hagman appeared on it once as a guest and said afterwards, "I've done some loony shows in my time..." For many viewers, this is the ultimate crazed panel show exploding with madcap, surreal humour. Others just find it irritatingly daft. The new series is back by popular demand, hosted by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, with Jack Dee and Ulrika Jonsson as team captains and Matt Lucas - still dressed as a baby - keeping the scores. Given the frantic energy and decibel level, it benefits enormously from the mournful presence of Jack Dee and his trademark scowl. But the highlight of the evening is Dan Skinner in the guise of a rancid Greek burger bar owner called Angelos Epithemious, who steals the show with a fully formed character and the deadest of deadpan comic performances.