Cariad Lloyd on Julie Walters

From Mrs Overall to Mrs Weasley, Walters' niceness is in danger of overtaking her immense stagecraft - if I could only be as real as she is.

Radio Times review

This post-watershed Pobol y Cwm has dawdled a bit lately. That all changes with the return of a Pontyberry favourite. Stella sees a woman loitering in her road, swigging from a vodka bottle. "It can't be." It is: Stella's sister-in-law and best friend Paula (Elizabeth Berrington) - back, she says, to pay the recovering Aunty Brenda a visit. How we, her friends and the show, have missed her.

In spite of an unsavoury storyline for Luke that paints Stella in unnecessarily EastEnder-ish colours (in hock to a loan shark; becoming a male escort), it's a warm and luminous episode, with reunion and resolution, Steve Speirs in Spanx and, perhaps, a subtle nod to Julie Walters's decrepit waitress sketch from As Seen on TV. I suspect that the more you love these characters, the more you'll be dabbing your eyes at several moments.

Radio Times review

Jamie Dornan, Julie Walters and Stephen Mangan are the guests. And in a way, that's all we need to know. Already, the conjunction of those names lets us picture the fireworks of conversation that could spark from placing those characters in a room (OK, studio) together. And we know, if there are fireworks to be had, Norton will light every touchpaper.

Dornan appears soon in the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey while Mangan will be in a Sky Arts drama playing a pregnant man. See? Fireworks right there.

Radio Times review

The trailer for the new film about Paddington, the duffel-coat-wearing bear from darkest Peru with a love of marmalade sandwiches, has already irked purists who fear Michael Bond's much-loved children's book character has been "Harry Pottered".

But the film's starry cast have no such worries, and three of them - Nicole Kidman, Julie Walters and Hugh Bonneville - cosy up on Graham Norton's sofa tonight to explain why they were keen to take part and how they believe "the spirit of the books has been preserved, while embracing some of the issues of the present day". Quite how a villainous Cruella de Vil-style taxidermist who wants the bear to be stuffed and mounted fits into that description remains to be seen. There's also music from Take That, who've slimmed down to a three-piece.

Billy Connolly to appear on Who Do You Think You Are?

Billy Connollly, Brendan O'Carroll, Julie Walters and Brain Blessed are amongst those who will appear on the next series of family tree show Who Do You Think You Are?

If the 90 per cent empty auditorium in which I saw this film earlier this week is any guide, TV comic Harry Hill has not struck gold, but something much smellier, with his graduation to the big screen.

Maybe it's Marmite, for people either love or hate his brand of comedy. As with Marmite, if you don't have the taste for it, it's not easily acquired, and it won't be acquired here.

Like Russ Abbot and Freddie Starr, before him, Hill revels in the adjective 'madcap', and there is certainly a strong madcap element to this tale of the ever-genial Harry and his nan (an exceedingly game Julie Walters) taking their apparently terminally-ill hamster (in fact, a cuddly toy) to Blackpool.

On the way they run into Jim Broadbent, playing a three-armed female cleaner in a nuclear power station, and Sheridan Smith, who plays the princess in a nautical tribe of shell people. Meanwhile, they are pursued by two villains dispatched by Harry's evil identical twin Otto (Matt Lucas).

Hill has attracted some top-notch British talent. Whether they read the script first is open to question.

Otto is cross because he was given up for adoption to a group of Alsatians in Kettering, and from that you get a hint of the kind of humour that prevails.

It's surreal, for sure, but the kind of surrealism that makes you sink lower and lower in your seat, wondering whether to make a dash for the exit.

If you do sit it out, though, there's some enjoyment to be had in spotting the comedy references - to The Goodies, The Lavender Hill Mob, even Charlie Chaplin's City Lights.

But I'm afraid that serves mainly to remind us what good comedy is, and what this isn't.

Harry Hill Movie - Review

There's not enough here to sustain 88 minutes, too many of the jokes fall flat and the image of Julie Walters rapping isn't one you'll be able to shift soon. But the set-piece gags are memorable.

Julie Walters on playing Harry Hill's nan in new film

Playing the role was great fun but Julie Walters, mum to Maisie, 25, says she is in no rush to become a grandmother in real life.

Harry Hill filming with Julie Walters and Simon Bird

The film features Hill on a road-trip to Blackpool after learning his hamster has only a week to live with his Walters as his white-haired gran.

Photos of Harry Hill and Julie Walters filming movie

Harry Hill and Julie Walters on mobility scooters, who's best? There's only one way to find out... race!