Opinion: Stand-ups can also stand out in documentaries

Television seems to be going through one of its phases where it gives comedians interesting jobs rather than just going "ooh look, how about a nice panel game/quiz show to be charismatically spontaneous on?" Last week Victoria Wood was poured all over our screens talking about tea. For the next two Sundays Bill Bailey is going to be in the jungle.

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Video: Victoria Wood interview

Victoria Wood's new drama Loving Miss Hatto airs on BBC1 on 23 December 2012. The story of an "ordinary" couple who managed to pull of the greatest fraud in classical music, it is an honest and sympathetic portrayal of love, life, fate and opportunity. Guardian TV editor Vicky Frost caught up with writer Victoria Wood earlier this year.

Victoria Wood narrates the final episode of this toe-warming series looking back at the finest comedy double act this country has ever produced. Tonight we take a look at their flawless Christmas specials over the years. There is nothing on earth that could make you feel more Christmassy. Guest stars including Angela Rippon and Penelope Keith reminisce, while famous fans watch rare and unbroadcast sketches with all the wonder of a five-year-old on Christmas morning.

Tonight BBC Two celebrates the life of Dad's Army actor Clive Dunn who died last month at the age of 92. There are endless repeats to remind us just how popular Dad's Army was but the figures make it abundantly clear: the show ran for nine series, pulled in audiences of 18 million and came fourth in a 2004 BBC poll of Britain's best sitcoms. Like all good comedies, Dad's Army's success lay with its characters, a ramshackle bunch of Home Guard volunteers, with none more pleasing than Dunn's doddery Lance Corporal Jack Jones.

Dunn will be best remembered for that iconic role but he found later success from an unlikely source - a chart-topping single, Grandad. He pursued this theme several years later when he starred in the popular children's sitcom, also called Grandad. The evening kicks off at 7.30pm with a repeat of The Dad's Army Story presented by Victoria Wood, complete with interviews from the (then surviving) cast including Dunn himself. There's a classic episode to follow, which sees the Dad's Army crew take on a rival regiment to prove their mettle. And we end the night with a one-off documentary in which Dunn's friends, family and colleagues share memories of his life and work.

The seasonal return of the Little Crackers series, which features comedy shorts based on the autobiographical recollections of various actors and comedians. Previous participants have included Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, Jack Whitehall and Sheridan Smith. This latest series begins with Joanna Lumley's Baby, Be Blonde, in which the 19-year-old Jo (Ottilie Mackintosh) is a struggling model who gets a break when she buys a blonde wig. "It didn't, but it made me feel that I had changed the course of my life," says Lumley in the behind-the-scenes film which follows the short. Also starring this week in later episodes are Rebecca Front and Caroline Quentin.

Harry & Paul (BBC2, Sunday) seem to have moved to my north-west London manor. Oi, that's the bus stop up the road. "What a wonderful place Willesden is," says Victoria Wood who joins in to play, alongside Harry, a pair of minor royals, visiting a corner shop in a less salubrious part of town than they're used to. It's one of the hits.

What, hit and miss? A sketch show? Really? Of course it is. You could even argue that this kind of traditional sketch show shouldn't have much of a future. But television would be poorer without Harry & Paul, because it can be so good.

It's not about the gags - if you looked at the script, you would probably just think: eh? It's all about the characters, and the interaction of the characters. Enfield and Whitehouse don't just dress up and put on silly voices, they possess their characters. The hits are big hits. "Probable quare" still makes me laugh. And the one at the end where it all goes Nordic noir is a joy.