Sometimes you watch a comedy and think "this is clever, isn't it?" and then you realise that, actually, you're not laughing all that much. So it was with W1A (BBC Two), a sort-of sequel to Olympics spoof Twenty Twelve that switches the satirical spotlight on to the BBC itself.

Look at us, we're the BBC and we can laugh at ourselves, is the subtext as David Tennant's arch voice-over guides us around BBC HQ in a maze of corporate speak, introducing us to a grazing herd of corporate types with a remit to think Big Thoughts and babble nonsense about 'appointment to view' television.

In the middle of it all, doing his dazed labrador thing, returns Hugh Bonneville's Ian Fletcher, this time as the BBC's new Head of Values, which seems to be exactly the same job as Director of Strategic Governance, played with obsequious brilliance by Jason Watkins, a comic actor of impressive versatility.

So far, so potentially side-splitting. Somehow, though, the in-jokery felt a touch too pleased with itself. A scene where Fletcher stumbled in on Salman Rushdie and Alan Yentob in the middle of an arm-wrestle bout was telling, a bit like that first day in a new job when someone says: "You don't have to be mad to work here but it helps" and you cringe, thinking: "Get me out of here now."

Let's not sound too harsh: W1A is ingeniously scripted, painting a neat picture of a culture where covering your back is number one in any ambitious individual's skill set. And things really picked up when, belatedly, Jessica Hynes returned as nightmare PR Siobhan Sharpe, a character so deliriously loathsome it really is funny. Whereas seeing a BBC run by bumbling idiots is merely believably bothersome: after all, we're paying for them.

Laughs were provided by Sky One's Trollied, which returns for its third series. The joy of Trollied is that it has so many characters that the majority of the scenes only last a couple of minutes.

The main plot of this series seems to be the introduction of Richard France (Chris Geere), a strategist who is aiming to modernise Valco using the Warrington branch as his tester store. Obviously Richard's bold ideas, including his clothing choices, will inevitably clash with the more traditional views of manager Gavin (Jason Watkins) and his assistant manager Julie (Jane Horrocks).

Elsewhere, we are treated more to the tedious love story between butcher Kieran (Nick Blood) and checkout girl Katie (Chanel Creswell). It seems that the now divorced Kieran is in a depressive state while Katie has finally realised that he's the perfect man for her. Luckily this romantic story isn't dwelt upon too long and we get plenty from our favourite comic characters including head butcher Andy (Mark Addy) and senior citizen deli assistant Margaret (Rita May).

It is these established characters that get the best gags including the now romantically linked Colin (Carl Rice) and Lisa (Beverly Rudd) whose sexual exploits provide some of the funniest moments in the episode.

I'm still not quite sure what to make of weird fishmonger Ray (Adeel Akhtar) and his new apprentice Dave (Danny Kirrane) as I didn't find their characters to be fully-formed.

Ultimately not much has changed in the world of Trollied and I think I like it that way. The jokes are still as funny as ever while the performances from Watkins and Horrocks are great especially when we saw how proud Gavin and Julie were of their summertime display.

Though I don't think this will quite reach the heights of Season 2, due to the fact that Stephanie Beacham has now left the show, Trollied continues to be a funny sketch-like sitcom with plenty of well-rounded characters.

There's something delightfully natural about the observant supermarket-set comedy, which continues its second season tonight. As Gavin (Jason Watkins) returns for his first scheduled visit as area manager, he's somewhat annoyed that no one seems to have missed him. Julie (Jane Horrocks), meanwhile, is treading lightly around the store's new manager, Lorraine (Stephanie Beacham).

The supermarket sitcom returns for a second series - a reasonably worthy recipient of Sky's huge investment in comedy and drama. Trollied remains at its best when it concentrates on the observational rather than the smutty, and most interest lies in the ups and downs of the highly strung deputy store manager Julie (Jane Horrocks). In the opener, Gavin (Jason Watkins) is leaving and Julie wants to give him a send-off to remember, but there's also the arrival of the new store manager to contend with and hard-boiled Lorraine Chain (Stephanie Beacham) has plans to revamp the Warrington branch of Valco leaving butcher Andy (Mark Addy) worried.

Trollied, the little comedy that taught us just how enthralling life in a budget supermarket can be, returns for its second series this week with a new boss - Dynasty ice queen Stephanie Beacham.

Episode one sees the Valco gang trying to adjust to life under their new boss - something that Julie (Jane Horrocks) in particular struggles with as she pines over her lost-love Gavin (Jason Watkins). The ladies' conflict comes to a head in the second instalment at 9.30pm when they differ over the store's new below-basic range. Trollied is far from a two-woman show though - Mark Addy, Nick Blood, Beverly Rudd and the rest of the crew are back as well, waiting for you to check them out.

The sociopathic private detective is chased through his tip of an office. DI Gilks (ever-excellent Jason Watkins) is on the warpath: two of Gently's ex-clients have been killed and he is the only connection. In the last story of a brief, scattershot series - a cheerfully unfeasible case of stalking, rare toxins and moonlighting builders - tolerant assistant Macduff finally snaps. But that moment and the clever ending aside, Dirk Gently still isn't quite catching fire. Dirk in progress, you could say.

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It's hard to know what to make of Trollied, the keen-to-please comedy set in a northern supermarket. It's likeable and has good performances (Jane Horrocks, Mark Addy and Jason Watkins), but it needs more definition - too often it appears like a series of mini sketches linked by the fact that they are all set in a supermarket. In this episode, the amusingly insecure Julie (Horrocks) is left in charge at Valco when Gavin (Watkins) is away on business. Andy (Addy), meanwhile, sees a fellow butcher in the shop and thinks his job is at stake.

There are some things you know really shouldn't make you laugh but somehow completely crack you up. So it was with an exchange on Trollied in which interim supermarket boss Julie (Jane Horrocks) informed the deli counter that she was, ahem, interimming. I'll run that past you one more time: she said she was 'interimming'. Suffice to say the butcher boys - Mark Addy and Nick Blood, having a ball - chewed that one up and spat it out for all it was worth.

Away from the unreconstituted filth, not all of Trollied hit the same spot. Horrocks was aiming for pathos as the socially inept Jane but it was a little too easy to see why everyone wanted to see the back of her. Jason Watkins, beloved of Psychoville and Being Human fans, seemed oddly muted as her boss.

It's the minor characters that make Trollied worth tailgating, with a psychotic shoplifter, a man with a habit of shooting a can of aerosol cream into his mouth by way of a perk, the pick of the bunch. More of him, and more airtime for the fledgling romance twixt butcher boy Kieran and his till-trapped admirer, and Trollied could yet beat the bargain bin.

The Office may now be a decade old, but its influence can certainly be felt on this workplace comedy that also features a hapless authority figure, apathetic employees and even some Tim-and-Dawn-style unrequited romance. The setting is Valco, a budget supermarket in the North West, where Jane Horrocks plays Jill, the interim deputy manager, who's the kind to open a conversation with "no offence" and then immediately go on to wound the feelings of her subordinates. You know the type - bristling with ambition, but unable to keep from cramming her foot into her mouth at every opportunity. As for the humour, well, it feels a little broad at this point, particularly the scenes involving Jill's attempts to ingratiate herself with her boss Gavin (Jason Watkins), which predictably end with her buried in social shame. But there's definite potential in the slippage between the store's happy-to-help façade and the general disillusionment of its staff, with Nick Blood and The Full Monty's Mark Addy proving to be particularly effective in this opening double bill as butchering duo Kieran and Andy.