A new series of mock-Orwellian oratory hits Friday night, with Joan Bakewell, Roisin Conaty and Richard Osman attempting to sneak their bugbears past Room 101 bouncer Frank Skinner. Irritants in the dock of discontent tonight include customer-service surveys, greetings cards containing pre-felt emotions, and the less-heralded animals making up the numbers in zoos around the globe. Every bit as unchallenging as you'd expect from the panel-led revamp, but the game "leg-selfie or hot dog" does sweeten the pill somewhat.

The mighty Pointless fact file that is Richard Osman - all 6ft 7in of him in his size 14 shoes - reveals his distrust of shoemakers and disgruntlement with people who tell him he's tall as a new season of personal hates and bugbears checks in for business. Frank Skinner resumes his duties as arbitrary arbiter of banishing dislikes to oblivion, with broadcaster Joan Bakewell and comedian Roisin Conaty taking a pew alongside Mr Osman. Among the more contentious candidates for annihilation are gardening and Bambi. And watch out for a clip featuring a massive snake - it's a real shocker.

Massive man-child Dan (Greg Davies) secures a date with the mother of one of the kids in his class during parents' evening. But he's so out of practice with the ladies he dragoons best mate Brian into going on a "mock date". Thanks to Dan's social tin-ear and pathological lack of charm, he has a meltdown in a Chinese restaurant that shouldn't be funny but it really is. In fact you could say that about every second of Man Down. It's puerile, silly, crude and offensive but it's so daft it's hard to resist even the twitch of a smile. And comedian Roisin Conaty is monstrously awful as Dan's brassy friend Jo, who sets up a gig for the mysterious "Mickey Two Face." Don't ask.

Roisin Conaty: It's a effort for me not to look mad

Roisin Conaty might be a new TV name to watch but she won't be on the red carpet any time soon.

Roisin Conaty - review

Conaty's loveable loser makes for charming company, but she's in need of a few more winning lines.

Strictly fans will find an extra treat tonight as Dan and his friend Jo perform a salsa to entertain some hospital patients.

It's all part of Dan's desperate scheme to try and convince his former girlfriend Naomi that he's a fun person with a fully rounded social life. Not much chance of that, as tonight he is also relying on the seductive power of mince to win her round. And what woman can resist mince?

Thanks to Greg Davies' towering energetic idiocy, Man Down offers reliable silliness - and it's the ideal vehicle for Davies to exploit his background in both teaching and stand-up. But he doesn't save all the best gags for himself and the support from Roisin Conaty and Mike Wozniak as his best mates Jo and Brian are outstanding.

The casting of Rik Mayall as Dan's father is inspired, and the kids who have the misfortune to be Dan's drama students are game, recognising he is a bigger kid than any of them.

Previously The Inbetweeners' grouchy headteacher, Greg Davies stars as Dan, a teacher capable of rivalling Jay, Neil et al for immaturity. Listlessly plodding through a life that has left him leeching off his parents and lumbered with dysfunctional friend Jo (Roisin Conaty), Dan spends much of this opener determined to win back his girlfriend by getting a mortgage, or at least a second pair of trousers. A pretty by-the-books start, but if we get more of Dan's eccentric dad (Rik Mayall), it's one to keep an eye on.

The News Quiz (Radio 4, 6.30pm) returns. I know there are people who will leap with joy at this news. Once I would have been among them. No longer. Even though producer Sam Bryant has brought back journalists (tonight Daniel Finkelstein of The Times) to pit wits against comedians Roisin Conaty, Phill Jupitus and Jeremy Hardy, the programme has grown so much coarser with the years that even Sandi Toksvig seems challenged when trying to enliven the murky script.

London comic Roisin Conaty made one of my favourite observations on modern life: you can have 150,000 "followers" but still eat alone. In anticipation of Earth having made it through the Mayan annihilation prediction, Conaty reviews her past with a new apocalyptic perspective.

Radio 1 delves into the unknown on What If?... It Really Was the End of the World when comedian Roisin Conaty starts a new series by asking her fellow stand-ups what, if anything, they would do differently if tomorrow never came. Actually, it's something quite useful to think over but, surely, everything would depend on how much notice you got. Would there be time to see the sun rise and the moon shine? Or only enough to eat chocolate and drink Scotch?