Phil Cornwell (Dead Ringers, Stella Street) heads the cast of this new sitcom from Andrew McGibbon. Dave Kafka is a typical Cockney geezer, returning to a London housing estate after a spell 'inside'. Felix Dexter and Tony Gardner also star. Intriguingly, this radio show will also be broadcast as a film on BBC interactive (i.e., via the red button). How will that work, I wonder?

Jack Dee's back with a second series of his (written with Pete Sinclair) hugely enjoyable BBC2 sitcom Lead Balloon.

Dee's portrayal of cantankerous, middle-aged comedian Rick Spleen has more than a touch of a media-class Tony Hancock to it - a character whose talent for digging himself into holes is second only to a grave-digger's.

One of the main joys of Lead Balloon is its small cast of supporting characters, comprising Rick's supremely patient wife (Raquel Cassidy), staggeringly vague daughter Sam (Antonia Campbell-Hughes), their permanently unheppy Polish home help Magda (brilliantly played by Anna Crilly) and his far-smarter co-writer Marty (Sean Power).

Even as minor a role as over-familiar local cafe owner Michael (Tony Gardner) is a perfectly formed, fully drawn character.

Every one of them was on top form, producing a just about flawless half hour of delightfully miserablist comedy. Lead Balloon is sure to go down well again this winter.

When Lead Balloon started, I obsessed about its debt to Curb Your Enthusiasm and whether it was too self-regarding in having a comedian playing a comedian. But I guess what counts is whether it's funny, and Lead Balloon has delivered lovely moments as well as scene-stealing turns from Anna Crilly's Magda, as perpetually gloomy as a Soviet tenement block, and Tony Gardner as a shell-shocked City trader-turned-organic restaurateur. And leading it all is Dee, who turns childish pettiness into something almost endearing.