Gavin Petrie

Duck Patrol (ITV) is a comedy as relaxed as the elastic in an old pair of bloomers.

And I watched the first episode of Next of Kin (BBC1) where Ms Keith, having doubtless considered the hundreds of different ways she might enact Maggie (her latest role), had yet again opted for the persona of a snooty, humourless, unemotional bossyboots. [...] No one expects, or even desires a sitcom to be true to life - if we wanted realism we'd all have mirrors in our rooms instead of TV sets - but the minimum requirements are surely escapism and entertainment. Jan Etherington and Gavin Petrie's pitiful script provided neither, merely ineptly cashing in on the current vogue for Third-Age sitcoms pioneered by the excellent One Foot In The Grave.

Taken to task by one correspondent for laughing at Crown House, and by another finding Muir and Norden amusing, I can only plead personal taste. So what about the description of Second Thoughts (Radio 4, Tuesdays and Thursdays) as comedy? [...] produced with expert timing by Pete Atkin, it owes more to After Henry than to that dodo of Radio 4, the sitcom.