Doc Martin Christmas Special, ITV review

Santa comes to Portwenn as the final curtain falls.

The delicious In and Out of the Kitchen has returned for a third series, featuring once again the ups and downs of the waspish cookery writer and broadcaster Damien Trench (Miles Jupp), whose great expectations are perennially, and hilariously, thwarted.

In the first episode, our hero is up for an award for his radio documentary, Poets and Their Palates. Unable to persuade his partner Anthony, or anyone else, to accompany him, he ends up taking his mother (Selina Cadell), who becomes the focus of a leering French author.

Trench is already a classic comedy character, quietly aspiring to high-flying media sophistication while everything and everybody conspires to bring him down to earth with a bump. Jupp's beautifully judged writing and pinched delivery are a joy.

Selina Cadell shines as Mrs Tishell returns

Overall, while not the best episode of Doc Martin this series, tonight's instalment definitely wasn't the worst. While I could've done without all of the silly Penhale stuff, Mrs Tishell's return has given us hints of what's to come during the latter half of the series.

High on a cocktail of prescription drugs and faced with the unwelcome prospect of quiet retirement with her dull husband, Mrs Tishell (Selina Cadell) decides it is now or never to discover whether her infatuation with the Doc (Martin Clunes) might be reciprocated. Her idea of seduction - which involves using baby James Henry as bait - proves not only desperate but dangerous, providing a real, er, cliffhanger for the final moments of the series.

Another dollop of Sunday night whimsy as the hemophobic former surgeon (Martin Clunes) and his cluster of eccentric Cornish folk return for a fourth series. Life continues much the same in the tiny fishing village of Portwenn, with all the locals getting ever more odd. The aging local chemist Mrs Tishell (Selina Cadell) has developed nymphomaniac tendencies. Scatter-brained receptionist Pauline (Katherine Parkinson) is losing sleep because of her brother's snoring. Big Bert Large (Ian McNiece) is missing the spark of love in his life. And all of them, for some reason, think they'll get some sympathy from the world's least considerate GP. The truculent medic, meanwhile, is nursing his own wounds following the departure of his paramour, Louisa, and it's made him restless. When he hears a desirable consultant's post is opening in London, he thinks that finally he might be able to overcome the fear of blood that previously ruined his career. First though, he has to overcome the shock of meeting a snooty former fellow student at the hospital in Truro, surgeon Edith Montgomery (Lia Williams), who makes no bones whatsoever about letting him know how low she thinks he's fallen.

For all the abuse Ricky Gervais receives, his astute awareness of the inner workings of the BBC was always fascinating to watch in Extras, especially when he launched his fake BBC sitcom When The Whistle Blows with its cheesy lines, studio laughter, simplistic acting and staged sets.

Surely the BBC doesn't make dated shows like that any more? Sadly, it does, as anyone who has been following Lab Rats will be aware. Last night marked the final episode of the Chris Addison comedy about university professors at work in the laboratory. The quality of actors involved - such as Addison, who dazzled in The Thick Of It - isn't in dispute but the BBC's desire to stick a laughter track over the weak jokes only highlighted the unfunny incidents.

Elsewhere, Helen Moon, a Patricia Routledge lookalike, spent the episode opening doors to pour scorn on the others before disappearing. Then there was the experienced Selina Cadell, who hammed it up as the Dutch dean of the university, who, it transpired this week, happened to own a slutty pigeon. Actually, that was amusing. But that was it. A shame - especially when it's obvious Addison's capable of so much more.

What a brilliant sitcom to get young children interested in the wacky world of science.

Sadly, the show - starring Selina Cadell - ended up being scheduled at 9.30pm, way past the bedtime of anyone who'd find anything to laugh about.

I didn't want to write this off after its debut last week. I hoped the stupid jokes, stupid science and even stupider scientists might have been a one-off, but this week it turns out it was just getting into its stride and was preparing to get even stupider.

Tonight we're subjected to a stream of verbal diarrhoea from guest star Robin Ince, who's been defrosted out of his cryogenic freezing unit. The joke is he's not even dead! But this show is. Time to pull the plug and walk away. Or else shunt it over to CBeebies.