Previews of BBC Christmas comedy specials

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Ghosts, Motherland, QI and King Gary.

Tom Davis's comedy of manners comes to its end after a somewhat predictable but nonetheless entertaining first series. Finally out of the suburbs and taking a holiday at the British seaside, Gary (Davis) has his plans for a quiet family getaway scuppered by wife Terri's plans to make holiday friends with a glamorous French couple. Meanwhile, Big Gary is on the hunt for the fabled pasty he had when he last visited decades ago, but can't remember where the shop is. A much-needed dose of summer.

More suburban insecurity as Tom Davis's patchy sitcom continues. Tonight, it is Gary's dad's birthday, which means a trip to a mini-golf centre and endless, absurd, alpha-male jousting. It often feels flimsy but the performances (this week including a lively turn from the reliable Neil Maskell) keep it watchable.

TV review: King Gary Series 1 Episode 1

Tom Davis's ITV2 sitcom Action Team was a disappointment and suffered from many of the issues King Gary does too, so I can't help but feel that perhaps Davis should return to the improv comedy of Murder In Successville, as he's definitely better at it then he is writing traditional sitcoms.

Meet Gary (Tom Davis), Homeric hero of the London suburbs in this irresistible family sitcom. He's a devoted husband to Terri (the riotously funny Laura Checkley), a disappointment to his dad and definitely still up for "a larf" with the building-site lads. So that's Homeric in the Simpsons sense too, then.

Tom Davis on his sitcom King Gary

The Murder In Successville star talks toxic masculinity, his love of British sitcoms and writing about his beloved hometown.

King Gary review

Despite there already being a pilot last Christmas, this first of six new episodes still feels like a sitcom trying to find its feet - drawn between being big, bold and lowish-common-denominator with more imaginative moments and not quite achieving either, despite some winning casting.