Neil Morrissey

The definition of insanity, according to someone-or-other, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The equivalent in a television review is complaining that a new BBC3 sitcom is puerile piffle - and yet, how can we avoid it?

There are so many of them and (with a few honourable exceptions, each a delightful surprise as they buck the trend) they are so bad. No-one ever admits to liking them, whether in the right age bracket they are supposedly targeted at or not, yet still they come, on and on, a grim onslaught of unfunny scenarios and jokes that most ten-year-old boys would reject as childish.

The latest is Inn Mates and what's most disappointing about this pilot effort isn't the lameness of its setting - a pub called The Friendship Inn, where various 20-somethings drink, get off with each other and trade unwitty banter - or script, but the "boast" that its writer, John Warburton, is the first person to have gone through the BBC's College of Comedy and get their script on screen. That was a scheme set up for aspiring sitcom writers which chose six people to have their scripts mentored and workshopped for a year before deciding if any would become a show.

The mind boggles at the ones which were rejected and at the idea that Inn Mates - whose jokes include someone getting Stanley Matthews the footballer and Bernard Matthews the turkey farmer mixed up - can have gone through so much yet still resemble a sub-par episode of Two Pints Of Lager..., BBC3's apparent idea of the ne plus ultra of comic achievement.

As well as its young cast, Neil Morrissey pops up as the sperm donor father of one character - his catchphrase is "I'm not your dad!" - who looks utterly depressed by it all. Given that he appeared in five series of Men Behaving Badly, this is a terrible indictment.

It is, of course, unfair to attack a young writer's first script, to judge a potential series by its pilot and to expect BBC3's young target audience to enjoy the likes of Rev or Roger And Val Have Just Got In. But comedy's a tough business and it's also unfair to keep churning out these unfunny booze-and-shagging sitcoms. For the love of God, please stop.

A comedy pilot from writer/comedian John Warburton, this sitcom is centred on a load of mates at a pub, the Friendship Inn. Hence Inn Mates. Its first gag is someone getting hit in the balls, and things decline from there. Jonathan Dixon (Darryl off Corrie) is joined by Joe Tracini (most recently seen in BBC4's The Great Outdoors) and Neil Morrissey. A likable cast, sure, but this is barely Two Pints-equalling.

If you think BBC3's new comedy about the dysfunctional regulars of a run down pub sounds a little familiar it's because it is and bears more than a passing resemblance to Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps. But the big difference is, this actually has some laughs in it, something that's even more surprising when you consider Neil Morrissey's in the cast.

It was only a matter of time before James Corden got his own celebrity panel show and here it is... basically, A Question Of Sport for idiots. Celeb guests include Freddie Flintoff, Neil Morrissey, David Haye and Jamie Redknapp, who spend the first half bantering loudly with their larger-than-life host about tattoos and booze - it's the televisual equivalent of Nuts magazine.

A new comedy quiz, hosted by James Corden, which draws on sports fans' love of lists. Team captains are England cricket monster Andrew Flintoff and Sky football pundit Jamie Redknapp, here to try to shake off the national embarrassment of those holiday advertisements. Regular panellists are comedian John Bishop and Sky Sports News presenter Georgie Thompson. Show one - an hour-long special with guests David Haye and Neil Morrissey was still in the edit suite as we went to press.

Don't worry if you weren't impressed with the sleepy first run of Simon Nye's domestic comedy. This second series has a much more confident vibe to it. Kicking off with an episode that sees taxi driver Barry (Neil Morrissey) caught for speeding and his missus Carrie (Clare Rushbrook) trying to trace her family tree, there are more laughs in the first 10 minutes than Ben Elton's Blessed has so far managed in two episodes.

Despite the gentle, cosy set-up, this is everything a good sitcom should be - sufficiently grounded to be recognisable, but never afraid to spiral into gleeful bouts of clever one-liners and nifty slapstick when the occasion demands it. There's none of the desperation to force laughs that scuppers the likes of My Family, just a charming, laidback assurance that if the characters and dialogue are good enough, the chortles will come.

And come they do. Barry taunting a hungover Carrie with gives about female binge drinking, Kirk (Mark Williams) explaining about his Gran's holiday to Malmo (She hasn't seen that many blonde people since she flirted with the Hitler Youth in her twenties), Michelle (Michelle Gomez) experimenting with fake breasts and a genius sequence with a sarcastic traffic cop are just the highlights of a mainstream comedy wasted in the limbo of Saturday night.

From the writer of Men Behaving Badly, Simon Nye, and starring the Man Behaving Badly Neil Morrissey, BBC One's new sitcom essentially poses the question: "What if, instead of going out with the disapproving Leslie Ash, Neil Morrissey played a character married to someone just like Martin Clunes - but a woman!?!"