Comfort classic: Drop The Dead Donkey

Steve Clarke alternately giggles and squirms at a biting satire on media mendacity.

How Drop The Dead Donkey broke the news - and its cast

The comedy almost known as Dead Belgians Don't Count was a unique mix of office humour and topical jokes. But staying current came at a cost.

Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin's long-running Channel 4 comedy dwelt on the staff of GlobeLink News, constantly fending off the attentions of Gus Hedges (Robert Duncan), hatchet man for their (unseen) new owner, Sir Roysten Merchant.

Hedges, a management droid speaking exclusively in jargon, is determined to make GlobeLink more sensationalist and tabloid but embattled editor George Dent (Jeff Rawle) sticks to his guns. Stephen Tompkinson and Neil Pearson brought a plausibly worn quality to their hack characters.

A brilliant satire on the commercialisation of news in the era of Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, Drop the Dead Donkey must surely have been an inspiration behind W1A (2014-) in its targeting of mind-boggling managerial interference.

Raising Martha review - psychedelic froggy comedy

David Spicer's humorous play about animal rights boasts deft one-liners and giant amphibians, but it ends up down a dramatic cul-de-sac.

Everyone's in a tizzy over an age-gap romance in this six-part sitcom from the brains behind Outnumbered. With Anthony Head cast in the role of 'old enough to be her father' Ed, opposite Eve Myles as Lauren, 26 years his junior, the lovebirds are bracing themselves for a chorus of tutting as their loved ones head over for a meet-the-sweethearts feast. Jeff Rawle and Lindsay Duncan are among the romantic snipers.

That age-worn trope of an older man in love with a younger woman is the basis for G.O.L.D.'s first sitcom commission. Anthony Head gives it his twinkly-eyed best as 59-year-old successful businessman Ed as he prepares to meet the family of his new girlfriend, 33-year-old Lauren (Eve Myles). Lauren is anxious about the reaction of her waspish mother (Susie Blake) and over-protective father (Jeff Rawle), but there's also her sister's unruly family to contend with, and that's before you start on Ed's unhinged ex-wife who lives next door (Lindsay Duncan), his naturist brother and chancer grandson. It's a loose, sprawling family dynamic; reflected in the writing, which mostly settles for tried and tested farce for its laughs.

Sue Perkins has become one of the faces of BBC Two in recent years, presenting all maner of food and pop-historical programming. Now she returns to her comic roots in this self-written sitcom, starring as Sara, a successful female vet about to turn 40 - but still frightened to tell her parents (Jeff Rawle and Harriet Walter) that she's gay. Her motley gang of friends set an ultimatum: if Sara fails to reveal her sexuality within six weeks, they will. To make matters even more chaotic, they arrange for her to attend a series of sessions with an eccentric life coach.

In her acting debut, Perkins is likeably beleaguered and sardonic, while there's a strong supporting cast of Nicola Walker (Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax), Dominic Coleman (Miranda), Shelley Conn (Mistresses) and Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of It, Getting On) - not to mention lots of four-legged extras. Guest stars also pop up throughout the six-part run, including June Brown, Steve Pemberton, Mark Heap, Dawn French and Perkins's Great British Bake Off co-host and original comedy partner Mel Giedroyc[/o]. Pitched somewhere between the slapstick Miranda and the sardonic Grandma's House, it's a highly promising, enjoyably daft opener.