Series three of this engagingly downbeat family comedy kicks off as Pete and Sue Brockman - the two of them outnumbered by their three children - go sightseeing in London with Pete's mother. Competing tensions are as usual caught precisely as Jake, now 14, Ben, nine, and Karen, seven, each have very different ideas as to what makes for a good day out, and aren't shy of letting their parents know about it.

Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner play Pete and Sue but their thankless roles as parents in the comedy are mirrored in real life, because they more or less have to stand back and watch the children steal the show. Much of the dialogue is improvised and Karen (Ramona Marquez, who won Best Female Comedy Newcomer at last year's British Comedy Awards) comes up with most of the best lines, including a smart run-through of the dos and don'ts of political correctness. Perhaps these are topped, though, when Ben (Daniel Roche) gives a spot-on, if scatological, analysis of Gordon Brown's political prospects.

A few of the jokes - the confusion between lesbian and Lebanon, for example - are not in their first flush of youth, and the scene in which Dennis is left to clown around on his own is jarring, but otherwise this is a note-perfect sitcom capturing the gentle mundanity of middle-class family life in Britain today.

Hugh Dennis' character sends sex txts

Outnumbered dad Pete follows in the footsteps of Ashley Cole and Vernon Kay as he gets caught sending sex texts.

It's wonderful to have Outnumbered back on our screens for a third series. If you've only just returned from a shopping trip to Mars, it is based on the life and times of two besieged middle-class parents (Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner) who are doing their best to raise three precocious children. It follows a comic tradition that goes back to Joyce Grenfell, but the brilliance of the show is the accuracy of the children's dialogue and the naturalism of their performances. Because so much of it is improvised, it is inevitable that some episodes won't be as strong as others. But tonight's, in which all the family (including the grandmother) go on a day trip to London, is a delight. I was enjoying it so much that I forgot to take notes in order to steal the best jokes.

This semi-improvised sitcom continues to amaze in that it is an almost unheard-of example of a middle-class family sitcom that's actually very funny. Caustic, believable and refreshingly unsentimental, it boasts more good gags per episode than most mainstream BBC sitcoms manage in a lifetime.

A large part of its success, of course, is due to the natural performances of its child stars, particularly nine-year-old Ramona Marquez as the maddeningly inquisitive Karen. In this typically joke-packed opening episode, she drags the family - nominally led by selfless straight-men, Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner - through a hectic historical daytrip to central London aimed at gathering research for her school project. She dismisses people who throw money into fountains as "idiots" and plays spot-the-lesbian with her anarchic brother Ben. Once again, it makes child-rearing look like an unyielding nightmare, but it's all the more hilarious for that.

A second series of the comedy written by and starring Andy Parsons continues to follow the exploits of the hapless Scrooby (Andy Parsons), a well-meaning but flawed young man who is desperately trying to better himself through his own website. This week, he tries to become an entrepeneur by misspending his inheritance. Dara O'Briain, Russell Howard, Hugh Dennis all also star - obviously they all had some time free between recording episodes of Mock the Week...

Break out the bunting, The Now Show has hit the big three-0. Yes, it's the 30th series of the award-garlanded topical sketch show fronted by Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt. When the ever-changing world of news is grist to your mill, it must compel you to keep going as more and more things show themselves up as ripe for sideswiping, but will the show start to settle down in its 30s, be not quite so willing to take risks as it was in its 20s? Judging by the high quality of comedy on show in the 29th series, I'd say not. It's the perfect show for the here and now, unless you're listening on iPlayer or to the newly available podcast, in which case it's the perfect show for the now and then.

Good news: The Now Show's back

The Radio 4 comedy sketch show in which Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis offer their satirical take the on the week's news returns.

Do I detect a slightly more relaxed and free-handed atmosphere now Frankie Boyle's not around to dominate proceedings? Mock The Week still can't match 8 Out Of 10 Cats' jovial atmosphere, but it's certainly getting there. The guests all got a chance to shine, which was the main thing. Chris Addison (best known for his role in political satire The Thick Of It, but also a stand-up comedian) got a few big laughs (mainly with his suggestion that we counter a tidal wave created by the Chinese jumping simultaneously with a similar wave borne of the UK's obese children), and stand-up comedians Sarah Millican and John Bishop both made enough of an impression to prevent total domination by the regulars.

But I'm still disappointed MTW even has so many "regulars" - because what's wrong with the traditional two team captains format? It just feel unbalanced and, frankly, I've grown tired of Hugh Dennis and Andy Parsons' shtick. And it still irritates me when the stand-up round features topics designed to give the guests the opportunity to reuse their stand-up routines (I mean, "Language"? The broadness of "Politics"?), but otherwise this was a fun episode - if still something you'll have forgotten about by ten o'clock.

I missed Stephen Fry's explanation of what "gallimaufrey" means, but it's apparnetly "a motley assortment of things", which basically means this edition of QI wasn't constrained by a strict topic. It made me wonder: is QI's alphabetical adherence to topics in its best interest? I know it gives the show structure and order, but there must be times when the behind-the-scenes "elves" are tearing their hair out trying to think of compelling subjects/trivia with a vague connection to the year's particular letter. God help us when we get to "Q" or "X"...

The guests this week were again rather restrained. Hugh Dennis and Andy Hamilton are both intelligent people, which can help push the show onwards without it getting bogged down in too much toilet/sexual humour, but they can also make it feel a little plodding. Still, I always like it when the guests throw in their own "quite interesting" facts, such as Hugh's story about a communist state altering their highway code so "red" meant go and "green" meant stop, but forgetting to change all the traffic lights.

Phil Jupitus continues to have a very odd presence on this show, looking half-embarassed to be there, or unsure of himself in some strange way. Alan Davies was okay, but it always bugs me when he bludgeons a joke to death with repeated play - this week, his impression of German car inventor Mr. Bentz writing his own driver's license. Funny once, not so funny the fourth time.

Frankie Boyle's been lanced, Russell Howard's wearing specs, but it's otherwise business as usual for satirical news quiz Mock The Week; a fusion of Have I Got News For You? and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, with irrelevant scoring and a weird mix of rounds that go from sitdown quiz to stand-up performances. It's all a mere conduit for ribpoking of the week's news stories, and MTW is perhaps more consistent than its contemporaries because four of the pannelists are regulars.

The downside of that consistency is that Hugh Dennis stopped being funny in the mid-'90s and Andy Parsons has never been funny, leaving host Dara O'Briain and Russell Howard to shoulder most of the comic burden. And, like a great many modern panel shows, a lot of guests just become glorified audience members, desperate to shoehorn in paraphrased segments of their standup material. This week, Mark Watson coped well as a guest (he's a veteran of this format), Patrick Kielty had the confidence to soldier through any difficulties he encountered, and while Milton Jones sometimes struggled to recycle his material appropriately, he at least didn't just sit back and do nothing. It helps that his stage persona is a spaced-out weirdo, so his weaker moments and slipups could be forgiven as part of his "act".