The unashamed old-fashionedness of Not Going Out can be a virtue. This week, for instance, Lee finds himself clashing with a snooty waiter in a posh restaurant. Cue various simple-but-effective puns such as, Waiter: "Entrées?" Lee: "It's up to you how you carry them."

Lee also does a trying-the-wine routine that is pure Eric Morecambe. The trouble is the storyline propping up the comedy feels particularly tired and cartoony: Lee goes out on an unlikely date in the hope of making Lucy (the true object of his affections) jealous, but the woman he chooses turns out to be a relationship weirdo out of 1980s cliché. Luckily, Katy Wix keeps turning up in superhero costumes to lighten the load.

A cheap skiing holiday in eastern Europe turns into a nail-biting comedy nightmare for Lee, Daisy and Lucy when they become stranded in a cable car far above the piste.

The episode plays out in real time, which helps to build up the hysteria as the group come to realise that the local woman stuck in the car with them is heavily pregnant. You can probably see where this is going, can't you?

What follows is typically ribald, buffoonish Not Going Out fare as hapless Lee (Lee Mack) is inevitably nominated to act as midwife - what with Lucy (Sally Bretton) being incapacitated by an accident and dim Daisy (Katy Wix) being, well, dim Daisy. Throw her a stick and she is guaranteed gleefully to seize the wrong end. Of course it's deeply silly, but as usual there are gags that will make you laugh, despite yourself.

he big difference this time around is that Tim Vine has now left, meaning that Lee Mack has no comic foil. Tim's disappearance was explained early on in this episode as he is apparently on a work placement in Germany. Meanwhile Tim's sister Lucy (Sally Breton) had a dilemma when she ran over the rabbit of a client's daughter after a successful business meeting. As this was Not Going Out, Lucy did the most illogical thing namely to get Lee to return the body of the rabbit to its owner. However due to a number of misunderstandings, Lee ends up returning the wrong rabbit and so the usual string of comic capers begin.

To be fair, not much has changed in the world of Not Going Out and I have to say I really didn't miss Tim Vine all that much. I feel by this point Mack and Breton to have enough chemistry to carry a sitcom together and this episode really demonstrated it. Thankfully Katy Wix's Daisy is still around and in this first episode had some great one-liners though I'd like to see her be the focus of a few more storylines now she's one of the major players.

Not Going Out may not be the most original comedy around but there's no denying that it's still funny after six years. Mack knows how to both write and deliver a funny line while his two female co-stars are also excellent at bouncing of him. So far 2013 has been a dire year for UK sitcoms so I'm glad that there's finally something on TV that at least makes me laugh once in a while.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: to lose one scene-stealing support player is unfortunate but to lose two could be considered careless. So can the sitcom that helped launch the career of Miranda Hart - and survived - pull off the same trick now Tim Vine is absent from the sixth series? All eyes are on Lee Mack, still firmly at the centre of this universe, with puns and misfortune whirling around him like dysfunctional satellites as Lucy (Sally Bretton) plays Watership Down with a brace of innocent rabbits and Daisy (Katy Wix) strides in to make matters worse.

At the launch of the sixth series of Not Going Out, its star Lee Mack said the absent Tim Vine - who played Tim, Not Going Out's good-natured voice of reason and a perfect foil for Mack - would be replaced by an "abstract concept". What he meant was there'd be a lot more plot and story to make up for the Vine-sized gap. You'll be able to see what he was getting at in a very farcical opening episode involving dead rabbits.

All the usual Not Going Out tent-poles are in place; the quick-fire gags at which Mack is the unsurpassable master, the silly situations (very silly, as it turns out) and the excellent Sally Bretton and Katy Wix as Lucy and Daisy. It's frantic, frequently funny and refreshingly unpretentious. But you'll miss Tim Vine. I do.

Lee Mack's gag-packed, innuendo-laden creation is now on its sixth series, and has been sold to 120 countries. Set in London's Docklands, it follows happy-go-lucky slacker Lee (Mack himself) who has a crush on his flatmate Lucy (Sally Bretton), while Katy Wix (Anna & Katy) plays their dim-witted hairdresser friend Daisy. This eight-part run is the first without Mack's co-star and punning partner Tim Vine and begins with head-hunter Lucy going for dinner at a client's house in an attempt to secure a lucrative contract.

Business isn't booming at Ignition Car Wash Solutions as The Apprentice-type team managers trade nuggets ofbusiness-speak numbskullery. It's the perfect pastiche and Katy Wix cleverly pins down all those tics and traits shown by every reality-show contestant who is quietly dying on the inside.

Again some bits of Anna & Katy work better than others. But the cod-German mickey-take of Friends and Seinfeld, Das Michael, has its moments and the spoof TV list-show Countdown of the World's Least Favourite Moments is a dream.

Katy Wix is Wales' newest funny girl

Dressing up and putting on funny voices is Katy Wix's full-time job, and she's pleased to report that it's something she's been doing for as long as she can remember.

Anna & Katy was a prime example of how not to do TV sketch comedy - coming off as little more than a lame college revue.

Is talking in a funny accent automatically hilarious? Anna Crilly and Katy Wix clearly think so because that's what they seem to do for the majority of the dog's breakfast that is Anna & Katy.

From an opening sketch featuring the pair of them attempting (I think) some kind of comedy Caribbean on a daytime TV show, by way of a naff stab at pidgin German, here was an object lesson in how not to be funny.

Well, that's my take. I'd held off reviewing Anna & Katy for three episodes, giving it a chance to settle down after an opening effort that left me cold. Some good things were written about it. Had I missed something? No, it still felt like a spectacularly lame college comedy revue, where just saying the word 'knob' is guaranteed a laugh because everyone's off their heads. Why C4 has this garbage on its main channel is a mystery.

Anna Crilly and Katy Wix interview

Channel 4's new comedy double act Anna & Katy talk about the perception of female comics.