Vicious series two to be screened on US PBS network

PBS has picked up a second season of Vicious, the Britcom starring Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as an old, bickering couple living together in a small London flat.

Stand by your tesselators for series two of the surreal sitcom. Fans of its lunatic thatch of The Wicker Man and Mighty Boosh will be pleased to know its formula is unchanged: crazy tale interspersed with beautifully crafted diversions.

To the uninitiated, This Is Jinsy is set on a fictional island, isolated in behaviour, religion and technology from the rest of the world. Parking meter-style tesselators spout vaguely sinister pronouncements about clothing, food or furniture, and entertainment takes the form of a talent contest presided over by a dog called Sandy.

The butt of nearly all the jokes is Arbiter Maven (Justin Chubb), a ludicrous popinjay whose disastrous follication ceremony in the first of this double bill leads to some hairy, Doctor Who-style horrors. And it's his more intelligent assistant, Sporall (Chris Bran), with his brown 70s suit and luxuriant 70s hair, who gets in most of the jibes.

This Is Jinsy may be the very definition of cult, but it's one that attracts Big Names. Stephen Fry is in the opener as a hair-museum curator, Ben Miller plays a feral accountant in the second episode; Eileen Atkins and Derek Jacobi will pop in later in the run.

Tracee Henge's Unwinese weather forecasts are especially fine, and the mad songs are as MP3-friendly as ever.

Justin Chubb and Chris Bran interview

As series two begins, we talk to the men whose strange little creation attracts guest performances from the likes of Stephen Fry, Olivia Colman and Derek Jacobi.

I am a great supporter of this out-and-proud, vulgar and loud sitcom, so it's a shame to report that this festive edition is below par.

Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen's characters, Stuart and Freddie, do little but swish and snipe, and Iwan Rheon is completely wasted as gormless neighbour Ash who, inevitably, bungles their Christmas dinner. So it's left to the women in their lives to save the programme.

Frances de la Tour is in top gear as Violet the man-eater who's recently become a masseuse, while Marcia Warren butts in with the best lines as the forgetful Penelope, who suddenly remembers something very important.

Few new shows split opinion as neatly as Vicious did this year. Some thrilled to the waspish bitching and wilful campery of live-in lovers Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, best chums Frances de la Tour and Marcia Warren, and strapping neighbour Iwan Rheon; others derided it as dated, offensive and tacky.

This Christmas special won't change anyone's minds. The stars deliver gags as creaky as their limbs but with irresistible relish; there's some half-arsed slapstick; Rheon is underused; and the action never leaves the confines of the flat. In truth, it's a little underpowered this time round. De La Tour and Warren waltz off with the best lines and the wholly familiar narrative - a botched Christmas get-together - doesn't add much to the occasion. But the indulgent and sofabound may enjoy a few chuckles here and there.

Though Alan and Celia are the twin heartbeats of Last Tango, in many ways this series has been about the flourishing of another relationship, the one between their daughters Caroline and Gillian.

Last week's episode was pivotal for the women when, in vino veritas, spiky, defensive Gillian (Nicola Walker) revealed a very dark episode from her past to an unwitting Caroline (Sarah Lancashire). Tonight, in the last instalment of the series, the pair emerge from a foggy alcoholic night to take stock.

But don't run away with the idea that it's all grim. There is a wedding to organise as Alan and Celia (Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi) renew their vows on a snowy Christmas Eve. It's a lovely occasion and writer Sally Wainwright, with her gift for putting her finger exactly on a drama's emotional pulse, brings us an occasion to cherish.

Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid star in the kind of British drama at which the BBC excels and, as the impressive viewing figures show, audiences still appreciate. The plot has modern flourishes (widower is reunited with childhood sweetheart via Facebook; lesbians) but this is an old-school, multi-generational observational family drama with comic subplot and it's all the better for it. Everything is pointing to a series-crowning wedding although, with an hour to fill and several other relationships hovering on the edge, we will have to work for our happy ending.

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Video: Behind the scenes on sitcom Vicious

Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi talk about working on ITV sitcom Vicious, where the pair play a gay couple who constantly snipe at each other.

By the end of the episode you'll probably be so overwhelmed by some big poignant moments involving Derek Jacobi that you'll have to be helped up the stairs to bed. Make sure there's someone to plump your pillows and take care of you, you're going to need it, as Alan (Jacobi) comes to terms with loss. Jacobi is so heartbreakingly good it's hard not to stand back, nod sagely and say to yourself, yep, that's acting, proper acting, all while you're having a good old cry.

Absence is very much a theme as Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) embarks on her weekend with girlfriend Kate (Nina Sosanya), a mini-break that proves unexpectedly lonely when Caroline has a failure of nerve. They meet the old friend who Kate wants to sire her child, and he's a self-centred, garrulous bore.