In the second episode of the Brit comedy about a hapless graduate, things seem to be looking up when Ben (Inbetweeners alumnus Blake Harrison) lands a job at a local pub. This being the Big Bad World, however, he's on an unsalaried graduate scheme. Desperate times call for desperate measures, namely faking a job on an oil rig to win back his ex, Lucy. With James Fleet and Caroline Quentin as Ben's overbearing parents heading up a strong cast, this is a funny take on the challenges of adulthood.

Big Bad World is an incredibly traditional sitcom with a fairly obvious storyline but at the same time it does have some pretty believable characters.

Even though I didn't particularly like Ben in this episode, due to Blake Harrison's mundane performance, I can see that he's going to grow as a person.

I felt that stand-up comic Seann Walsh stole a fair few scenes as the incredibly inappropriate Eggman. However, the stars of the show were sitcom veterans Caroline Quentin and James Fleet, who were an absolute hoot as Ben's parents.

Though all of the jokes and situations were fairly obvious there was still a lot of effort made to let us get to know all of the characters. It may be a fairly predictable sitcom, but Big Bad World did make me laugh a couple of times and that's more than can be said for the majority of comedies that have aired this year.

This eight-part comedy cunningly taps into the ever-expanding demographic of the rudderless graduate, straight out of uni and forced to return to the fold. Ben, played by Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners' Neil) is our delusional hero, struggling to find work and stifled by life in his seaside hometown.

Right now that premise isn't translating to comedy gold, but that's not to say that it won't. The opener is rescued by a surreally tacky marriage proposal and Seann Walsh as Ben's unhygienic pal. Caroline Quentin and James Fleet milk it for all it's worth as Ben's embarrassing parents.

Work, love, friends and family. The four pillars of sitcom, you could argue, and ones without which Big Bad World would collapse entirely. As it is, this Blake 'Inbetweeners' Harrison vehicle is amiable if inessential, following Ben (Harrison) as he returns to his dead-end hometown after years at university studying Norse Literature.

Only one thing has changed: while his parents (James Fleet and Caroline Quentin) smother him and his mates are locked into old routines, his ex has shacked up with a hunky-yet-sensitive copper. And guess what? He still holds a candle for her. Amid the standard-issue faux pas and idle banter come a few flashes of inspiration - notably the box-ticking job interview - but surprises are generally few and the laughs gentle.

The Inbetweeners star Blake Harrison returns to our screens this week in new eight-part comedy Big Bad World - Harrison plays Ben, a recent graduate who quickly learns that post-Uni life isn't all it's cracked up to be, as he finds himself with no job, no girlfriend and back living with his parents, played by Caroline Quentin and The Vicar of Dibley's James Fleet.

We'd definitely recommend catching Big Bad World.

Having set a new benchmark for sitcoms with Outnumbered, writing partners Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton know that expectations are high for their new pilot, part of Channel 4's Funny Fortnight. This one also centres around a squabbling suburban family, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. James Bolam and James Fleet play a father and son-in-law trying to negotiate a post-apocalyptic Britain in which economic collapse and climate change have created a lawless society of scavengers - think Survivors meets Steptoe & Son.

From the people behind Outnumbered comes a family-friendly sitcom set in 'the near future' - where public services are all but extinct, rising sea levels have turned Norwich into an island and austerity has taken its grubby hold. The gentle James Fleet leads us through a dystopia that, were it to be commissioned into a full sitcom, you'd hope would get a little darker.

An unspecified apocalypse has hit the UK, but petty suburban concerns linger on for the Pilch family: curmudgeonly old geezer James Bolam, hapless son-in-law James Fleet and bolshy grand-daughter Jennie Jacques. The next-door neighbour is still an irritant, although arguments revolve not around parking or foliage maintenance, but who dumped the corpse over the fence. Laptops are used to squash flies. And a formidable 'area commander' is on hand to dispense summary justice. There's the kernel of a good idea in Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin's show (their first since Outnumbered), but Just Around the Corner is a little too low key for its own good. The targets are soft, and the dull colours and dreary lives infect the writing and performances: the sitcom equivalent of a wet weekend.

The Function Room is something which I read about earlier this year and I thought sounded really good - a possible rival for Craig Cash and Phil Mealey's brilliant pub sitcom Early Doors from the early 00s. And I have to say - aside from the annoyingly loud studio audience - I liked it.

The cast was brilliant - Trollied's Beverly Rudd, The Inbetweeners' Blake Harrison, The Vicar of Dibley's James Fleet to name just a few. There was even a great late appearance from Psychoville's and one quarter of The League of Gentlemen's, Reece Shearsmith. With such a strong cast, I had a certain faith in The Function Room before it even started... and that faith paid off.

It took a while but right from the moment a disgruntled Rudd uttered the word "Bergetw*t", I found this show very funny.

I think the key to The Function Room, and something which seems to be missing from quite a few comedies nowadays, is strong characters. From a very theatrical actor (Fleet), to a passionate busy-body who generally objects to everything (Daniel Rigby, the one who plays the slightly odd flatmate in the BT ads), and to a young, outspoken couple who only seemed to be at the 'Meet the Police' meeting 'for the craic' (Harrison and Rudd).

The Function Room definitely has legs and should be picked up by Channel 4 even just as a three-part series. It's far more deserving than Verry Terry!

The Function Room is a cheerfully traditional and often very funny studio sitcom set in a pub, and starring a host of familiar comedy actors including The Vicar of Dibley's James Fleet, The League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith, The Inbetweeners' Blake Harrison, The Fast Show's Simon Day (once again playing a pub know-it-all) and every-comedy-of-the-last-fifteen-years' Kevin Eldon.

The sort of uproariously gag-heavy sitcom that encourages deserved rounds of applause from its studio audience, it's definitely a step in the right direction for Channel 4, and if they have any sense - which they don't - they'll commission 
a series.