David Walliams

Jimmy Carr returns with the sixth - yes, sixth - series of this consistently funny panel game, sitting smugly between the announcement of who's getting kicked out of the Big Brother house and the first evictee's chat with Davina.

Comedians Sean Lock and Jason Manford are still in the team captains' chairs and tonight they'll be joined by repeat guests (also known as show stalkers) Vic Reeves and David Walliams, who have appeared more than 10 times between them.

That two people could write a sketch which involves Steve Coogan saying, "Don't press that red button", and then Matt Lucas pressing that red button (and that was it) boggles the mind. Can you imagine getting up from the computer desk and saying to your colleague, "Right, that's that one finished, let's take a tea break"? Talk about insubstantial ... This was a terrible, terrible comedown for a show that I'm still happy to admit once loving.

Lucas and Walliams, by contrast, seem content to sit in a comfort zone, churning out near-identical jokes over and over and over again. Whereas the League's characters became deeper and more complex over time, Little Britain turned into The Fast Show. Characters would come on, do the same old routine, say their catchphrases and go.

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It is in Little Britain's attitude to women that the show displays its most alarming aspects - mainly because it confirms that in this era of Zoo and Nuts and Heat, this is how women are generally regarded.

Armed with a new director in Matt Livesy and script editor in Rob Brydon, a show that I'm still happy to admit once loving continue the high standard they set in the first season.

Little Britain (BBC2), a new comedy series, is a surreal mix of soft toys and scrabble. It is written and performed by David Walliams, who is clearly dyslexic, which may be why all the towns such as Hurdy and Flange sound a bit askew, and Matt Lucas, who frightened me as George Dawes and frightens me now.

A spoof documentary about stately homes is a potential gold mine for a keen-eyed comic. [...] yet this was unobservant, badly-scripted tosh.