Nancy Banks-Smith

Sykes's script had several jokes which struck me as absolutely original. Which is absolutely extraordinary. I didn't know there were any new jokes. When I tell you that most of the script turned on the record of a dog barking and never once did anyone even look as if they might mention His Masters Voice, you'll see what I mean.

Till Death us do Part (BBC1) now wins on points rather than by a knockout. Perhaps we viewers are tougher than we were. Perhaps it's done the toughening.

"Queenie's Castle" (Yorkshire) was never anything but a hopeful twinkle in the eye of Waterhouse and Hall. Lacking them, this second series is even more bleary and bloodshot.

The new Johnny Speight series (BBC1) was gorgeously acted by Cyril Cusack and James Booth and equally well directed and lit. Speight's tramps have always had a taste for the dolce vita ever since a real one hitched a lift in his Rolls "because you meet a nicer class of person that way." A very deluxe production and mildly memorable remarks and turns of phrase.

The Virgin Fellas (BBC1) is new to me and, I assume, represents some form of transportation reserved for comics. It is evidently Australian which is an explanation though not an excuse. I cannot see the joke for the girls, who swarm all over the place in long hair and short skirts. The jokes I saw or, at least, heard were about drink and nickel and girls with no knickers.

Talk about London (BBC1) roused Michael Bentine to roars of appreciative laughter, but from where I was standing it looked like one of those stick your finger in programmes which are made to plug an inconvenient hole.

The Mike and Bernie Show (Thames) was written by a Mr Merriman, as misleading a name as I have come across recently.

I greatly and noisily enjoy "Alcock and Gander" (Thames) and think it, though I cannot prove it, the funniest thing on television this summer. The jokes do not do themselves justice on paper. But beautiful timing makes the most of this kind of exchange: Miss Reid: "How's business?" Prostitute: "Picking up." Reid: "Yes, well, it would be."

"Cheap At Half The Price" (Thames) is a new comedy series about an antique shop, but I cannot, on the whole, feel it is necessary to use exclusively old jokes as Vince Powell and Harry Driver do.

Anyway the hour passed pleasantly enough if you didn't worry too much about some of the animals' uneasiness. I liked Rod Hull's emu. Most of Spike Milligan's shaggy dog jokes. And bits of Mr Bygraves. And so would the alligator, given the chance.