Sweet and funny one minute, laboured and creaky the next - we're going to have to get used to Great Night Out's ups and downs. But at least the performances are consistently good, particularly Craig Parkinson as self-doubting Glyn, who this week has a birthday party and would love the beautiful Julie (Christine Bottomley - simultaneously playing a dodgy copper on Silent Witness) to be there.

Some people might simply ask her, but not Glyn. He goes the long route and, because she's a nurse, pretends he's having chest pains. Which, like everything in this series, goes horribly wrong for him, via a fear of clowns and some customised chili con carne.

Meanwhile, Beggsy's ex-wife Mandy (Lucy Gaskell) - the one who left him to go and live with a new man in Australia - is back in town. So obviously
he's playing it verrrry cool.

Poor Curtis: hasn't he learnt by now that all probation workers, even trainee ones, are hopelessly deranged? There's certainly more to his new girlfriend (Lucy Gaskell, who fantasy fans may remember as werewolf George's girlfriend Sam in Being Human) than her come-hither pout. Before you can say, "I love you", Curtis is knee-deep in gore and wrestling a zombie in another eye-wateringly violent episode, and this time there isn't a happy ending. So thank goodness Rudy has a tasteless joke (or six) up his sleeve.