Another object lesson in economical narrative from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith - this time with guest turns from Javone Prince and Tamzin Outhwaite. Tonight, we're at the karaoke leaving do of an office manager. It's a study in communication breakdown; how people use booze, loud music and enforced jollity to fill the gaps between them. As usual, a prickly, fraught affair but, this time, with just a touch of redemption to sweeten the pill.

Preview - Inside No. 9: Empty Orchestra

The latest edition of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's anthology series takes us into karaoke booth No. 9.

Inside No 9: Empty Orchestra review

Anyone who has taken part in a works' karaoke outing knows that it's an arena for bad singing, annoyingly good singing and professional tensions to surface unprofessionally. The latest episode of Inside No 9, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's terrifically clever portmanteau series, exploited this to full effect to provide another 30-minute oddity that was bursting with ideas and left you with a feeling of deep unsettlement, like reading an MR James story and then remembering the denouement in your dreams and waking up in a cold sweat.

Miranda's Tom Ellis wins newspaper damages

Miranda actor Tom Ellis has won substantial damages over a false story that he was failing to pay child maintenance to his ex-wife, actress Tamzin Outhwaite.

This week Tamzin Outhwaite's head is played like a bongo, we learn that Alan Sugar is 30 per cent Canderel, and Vic spits out a bird egg after Bob mallets him in the face. Barmy business as usual, in other words, as the circus of the surreal ends its current run.

It's the left-field material that works best, and Angelos Epithemiou the Shooting Stars scorekeeper (the most pointless job on television) certainly qualifies with a blast from his drum 'n' bass burger kiosk and a spirited little dairy-produce dance.

But it's a lumpy old comedy stew, with jokes from the late Pleistocene period and routines Benny Hill might have turned his nose up at. Bring back George Dawes and his Peanuts song.

The eighth series of the Reeves and Mortimer's cult panel show draws to a close tonight, having attracted respectable viewing figures of 1.5 m. Deadpan comedian Jack Dee appears to be at a disadvantage as he is joined by actress Tamzin Outhwaite and Primal Scream bassist Gary Mounfield, while Ulrika Jonsson gets stand-up Micky Flanagan and actor Charlie Higson for her team. But as the questions are nonsensical and the games bizarre, anything can happen.

Hotel Babylon, BBC1's celebrity-sprinkled, glorified soap, is back for a third series. So far, this stilted comedy drama about preposterous shenanigans in a five-star hotel has proved remarkably popular. The programme may be in for a struggle, though, now that it has lost its best star, the sexy Tamzin Outhwaite. Max Beesley, her erstwhile henchman, now promoted to hotel manager, has never exactly oozed leading-man charisma, and he failed to electrify in last night's opener.

Still, there was something sneakily enjoyable about the episode, which pivoted on the unlikely possibility that vain receptionist Anna (Emma Pierson) cared about fair-trade garment manufacture. Although it was the incidental trivia rather than the plotline that provided the amusement. "Sorry I'm late, I had an early morning dental appointment," said head of housekeeping Jackie (Natalie Mendoza), as she tumbled in, dishevelled, to a meeting. "Oh you poor thing, did you get drilled?" fired back Anna.

Perhaps Hotel Babylon's secret is that it offers a parallel universe where we can laugh at people who behave with a shamelessness we secretly rather envy.