Susan Boyle faces send-up on iconic Hogmanay comedy

Mimic Jonathan Watson targets SuBo plus Alex Salmond and Johann Lamont on this year's Hogmanay episode of satirical favourite Only an Excuse.

On Channel 4's opening night in 1982, Ian McKellen starred in Walter, a drama about a man with learning difficulties who tries to make his way in a cruel world filled with suspicion and derision. In Derek (Channel 4, Wed, 10pm), Ricky Gervais stars as a man with learning difficulties who tries to make his way in a cruel world filled with suspicion and derision. And has Karl Pilkington a best friend.

The contrast couldn't be more stark. Whereas the future knight and Lord of the Rings star simply was Walter, Derek is The Office boy with a greasy haircut, bad knitwear and facial tics. The cynical might view Derek as Gervais making a grovelling apology for 'Mong-gate' when he threw a word around on Twitter in late 2011 which attracted the ire of the Daily Mail (obviously), Susan Boyle and MENCAP. Except the writing of Derek was well under way by then ahead of its pilot episode last spring.

Like the overwhelming majority of modern comics, Gervais' heart is solidly in the right place but the brain has a tendency to force a foot deep into his mouth from time to time. Taking risks and making an inevitable mistake or ten is part of the comedian's job description. Here, though, Gervais has gone almost entirely in the opposite direction. Soundtracked by Einaudi, Derek is overstuffed with manipulative schmaltz, and so sickly-sweet that it requires you to undergo an emergency filling just by switching it on.

Shunning the pratfalls of the pilot, Derek is now a conscience-driven series in which besuited health executives visit the care home where the eponymous 49-year-old works, callously poking around to see where cuts should be made or whose jobs can be exterminated. Oddjob man Dougie (Pilkington) is one obvious candidate for the chop, while the delicate situation is not helped by the inexplicable presence of a sleazy waster Kev (David Earl). He brings a certain David Brentness to proceedings, replacing tugging on his tie with slugging on an endless stream of Special Brew while attempting to force himself onto any female (whether old, obese or other) unfortunate enough to cross his awful path.

Gervais' triumphs here are to show that the previously irritating Pilkington is actually half-a-decent actor and to write a beautiful lead role for Kerry Godliman as the stoic care home leader. Where it falls spectacularly down is through some rather lazy button-pushing (especially with the endless photo-montages of aged residents in their youthful pomp) and in Gervais' massively distracting central performance which hinders rather than helps the series. And will he ever give the mockumentary genre a break?

Have television panel shows had their day?

Jack Whitehall and James Corden's jokes about the Queen and Susan Boyle on Big Fat Quiz of the Year led to complaints to Ofcom and outrage in the press. Have TV panel shows had their day or are they just in need of a radical rethink?

Susan Boyle on Ricky Gervais: 'He has the problem'

Susan Boyle has responded to being called a "mong" by Ricky Gervais.

Ricky Gervais in clear over 'mong'

A televised jibe by Ricky Gervais in which he said singer Susan Boyle "looked like a mong" did not break broadcasting rules, the TV watchdog said yesterday.

Do comedians never get taught about overexposure? Peter Kay's at it tonight with three hours of programming dedicated to the creator of Phoenix Nights. He kicks off with a selection of not 10, not 50, but 43 of the greatest moments of his career to date. Kay's created a whole new character to host this staggering display of self-aggrandisement, which will, of course, include the duet with Susan Boyle, I Know Him so Well.

Susan Boyle makes a blink-and-you'll-miss it cameo appearance in tonight's episode. She's not singing, unfortunately, but Mary and Ella are in their new guise as girl group The Scrubbers.

The show's actress Elaine C. Smith will, at the star's request, play SuBo in a musical next year about her rags to riches story and she's the perfect choice.

Also this week, we find Rab squeezing into some gold lame hotpants. If anyone out there is planning a Stavros Flatley biopic, I think we've found your star.

Susan Boyle took a brief cameo in Rab C Nesbitt, appearing from beyond a copy of Variety in the Giblets pub, where she was notionally judging Govan's Got Talent, in which Ella and Mary were appearing as a pair of singing char-ladies called The Scrubbers. Neither The Scrubbers nor Boyle would be advised to give up the day job.

Last week's visit from the government minister "for work" has set a political tone for the latest series of the decades-old Scots sitcom. "You can tell there's a recession on when the poor start getting naked," observes a shirtless Rab (Gregor Fisher) in this episode, in which Rab and Jamesie (Tony Roper) try to set themselves up as sexy male cleaners. And when Rab's wife Mary (Elaine C Smith) is made redundant, she decides to put her singing talents to good use by forming a girl band, but her performance in the local pub ends in disaster. Susan Boyle guest stars as a talent show judge.

SuBo accepts special invite to Peter Kay's Glasgow gig

Comic Relief duo Peter Kay and Susan Boyle will reunite once again at the SECC at Kay's Tour That Doesn't Tour Tour.