In a medium awash with lazy stereotypes, it's original thinking that stands out. The most compelling television provides a new perspective on an old story, and challenges the laziest of preconceptions with wit, humour and more than a dash of bravado.

BBC Two's new series Rev is pretty much a masterclass in how to pull this off. Take one fine actor (Tom Hollander), add an equally brilliant supporting cast (Olivia Colman, Steve Evets, Miles Jupp, Lucy Liemann, Simon McBurney, Ellen Thomas), choose a fraught subject (religion), throw in some punchy writing (James Wood) and get Peter Cattaneo (of The Full Monty fame) to direct the lot and what have you got? A damn fine reason to stay up late on Monday nights, that's what.

Firstly, the subject matter: religion, or more specifically, the Church of England. With the notable exception of Father Ted, comedies involving vicars tend to be soporifically safe. Not only is Rev travelling without seatbelts, it is also doing 90 miles an hour down country lanes with the roof off and the stereo on full blast. This is no gentle cake-and-cassock comedy; it's the story of an ordinary, fallible vicar living in a tough, brutal world who is trying to do something very extraordinary: stay true to his faith.

That the Reverend Adam Smallbone is an ordinary fellow we know from his behaviour. He is a man who jumps the lights on his bike, who gets nervous and drinks too much at parties, who tries (and fails) to have sex with his wife. His flawed but irresistibly likeable persona comes across loud and clear in just a few opening moments, brilliantly pinpointed by the direction, the writing and, of course, by Hollander himself, whose performance is outstanding.

The themes, too, are unrelentingly contemporary. Smallbone is in charge of St Saviours, a grand, dilapidated church in a run-down inner-city area of London with a confusingly mixed catchment. There are the regulars, a rag-tag collection of locals led by Colin, the neighbourhood ne'er do well, who has a fond affection for the "vicarage"; and there are the newcomers, in the shape of the arrogant, urbane middle classes, led by the local MP, played as a modern-day social Flashman by Alexander Armstrong. Simon McBurney is deliciously oily as the Archbishop, who Smallbone only ever seems to encounter in the back of a taxi, all black leather gloves and dark threats.

The opening theme is current and controversial: "On your knees, avoid the fees", chirps Armstrong's villainous MP, as he horse-trades a place for his delinquent son in exchange for cash to repair the broken stained glass window of St Saviours. It's a merciless commentary on modern life; but it also has a surprisingly strong moral, dare I say thoughtfully theological, core. The temptations that assail Smallbone may be very contemporary in their nature; but they are as eternal as the themes of the Bible itself: right v wrong, truth v corruption, the poor v the rich.

As to the comedy, it's of the organic kind, not the obvious gag kind. Outside the church, the Reverend and Colin share a bottle of beer and discuss Richard Dawkins (as you do). "If I met him I'd kick him in the bollocks," says Colin, with customary frankness. Earlier Smallbone, confronted for the nth time by a group of sneering builders and their spectacularly unfunny jokes about choir boys, pauses. Slowly, and with a look of weary resignation, he removes his dog-collar. "Why don't you just f*** off," he says. The viewer punches the air with joy.

Give new vicar comedy a little time

Rev is nicely made, on film, and nicely played, but this first episode left you chuckling rather than rolling in the aisles. Still, give it time - after all, it took some people a whole series before they warmed to Father Ted.

Rev: Almost praiseworthy

Rev didn't quite have our reviewer rolling in the pews, though it did raise the occasional smile.

Fans of Father Ted and The Vicar of Dibley might recoil from the relatively gritty realism of this new six-part ecclesiastical sitcom. Tom Hollander stars as the Reverend Adam Smallbone, a country vicar who takes over an inner-city parish and finds himself tested by a very modern set of moral dilemmas. In episode one, it's the miracle of a good Ofsted report that fills his church with parents of little faith but a genuine fervour to get their children into the church school. When someone throws a bottle through the stained glass window causing £30,000 worth of damage, the Rev has a range of fund-raising ideas from a bring-and-buy sale to sitting on the church roof until someone pays for him to come down. "I think you might be up there for some considerable time," opines Simon McBurney's iPhone-equipped archdeacon. The Rev's best bet is a spot of horse trading with the local MP (Alexander Armstrong), which could bring in the cash in return for a school place for the politician's son. But ought a vicar to be a little more high-minded in how he goes about God's restoration work? Hollander previously donned clergyman's robes in 2005 to play Jane Austen's obsequious Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice, but he's much more of a baffled everyman here. The script could use a little of Austen's light touch, though. Do vicar's wives really talk about "bashing the bishop"?

A new sitcom about an inner-city London vicar may not sound promising, but Rev is laugh-out-loud funny. At its heart lies Adam Smallbone (Tom Hollander), whose congregation is suddenly swelled by the "on your knees, avoid the fees" brigade when rumours spread that the church school is about to get a glowing Ofsted report. Both an exploration of British hypocrisy and a warmly played character piece with some terrific lines. With Olivia Colman and Alexander Armstrong.

Tom Hollander makes a bid here to join Derek Nimmo and Dawn French in the small but cosy pantheon of sitcom vicars. He plays the Reverend Adam Smallbone, a well-meaning, unshaven, east London clergyman who smokes, drinks enthusiastically and does the splits at parties, but is sweetly ineffectual in the face of the problems he faces. They include a domineering archdeacon and a rash of pushy parents hoping to get their children into "his" C of E school, whose headmistress Smallbone clearly fancies. It's a gentle, ragged sort of comedy, short on belly laughs but with enough character-led jokes to offer hope for good things to come. Alexander Armstrong brings his expert comic timing to the role of a bluff MP who is one of the "On your knees, avoid the fees" crowd. The wonderful Olivia Colman seems (so far) slightly wasted in the role of the vicar's wife, but given time, and given Hollander's rumpled charm in the lead, it could be a quiet winner.

Popstar Reverend Richard Coles inspires sitcom

Reverend Richard Coles, a curate at St Paul's Church in Knightsbridge, London, lifts the lid on the lighter side of religious life...

Rev, the new comedy series starring Tom Hollander as a vicar struggling to cope in an inner-city parish in Hackney, East London is an absolute joy. The script was written by James Wood, the man responsible for the brilliant comedy Freezing, and it is directed by the Oscar-nominated Peter Cattaneo, of The Full Monty fame. Not only is it extremely funny, but like all the best comedy it is based on truthful observation - gleaned from the experiences of real Church of England priests. What makes it so unusual and warm-hearted is that Hollander's priest is so sincere. This is a priest who believes in God, who prays and can take on Richard Dawkins without a hint of sanctimony - and who still finds life a source of constant tribulation.

Tom Hollander stars in this new BBC sitcom about a C of E Vicar struggling with an under-funded inner-city parish. Think In The Loop meets The Vicar of Dibley.

Hollander's Reverand Adam Smallbone isn't your average clergyman. He likes a smoke, he loves a drink and has ambivalent feelings towards his parishioners - particularly the devoted lost soul Colin, who's christian beliefs don't quite extend to "them asians".

But despite his foibles the Rev is well meaning and continues to open his door to the lost, the homeless, the poor, the insane, and to local crackhead Mick, who's constantly in need of 20 quid to visit his dying mother - who's died three times in the last 12 months.

Featuring guest appearances from Olivia Coleman as the Rev's long-suffering solicitor wife, Alexander Armstrong as a local MP and Lucy Liemann as prim primary school headmistress Ellie, this is a slow burner of a sitcom, low on belly laughs but with enough potential to keep us tuning in.

When Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews created Father Ted in 1995, they breathed new life into the stereotype of the comedy vicar, a character that for too long had been suffocated by the tyrannical stranglehold of Derek Nimmo. Unfortunately Richard Curtis simultaneously came up with The Vicar of Dibley, a programme as twee and mediocre as any number of Nimmo's cassock-based comedies.

Perhaps realising that the realm of the ecclesiastical sitcom hasn't been successfully exploited in a while, acclaimed comic actor Tom Hollander has co-created Rev, in which he plays a harassed vicar at a struggling inner city London church.

Sadly, despite the talent involved - the cast also includes Alexander Armstrong, Finding Eric's Steve Evets, Peep Show's Olivia Colman and comedian Miles Jupp - this low-key comedy is a disappointment. The blame must lie with writer James Wood, who also wrote the similarly underwhelming media satire Freezing, in which Hollander's ferocious comic performance was the sole highlight.

The jokes in Rev are sparse, weak and principally based around the supposedly amusing conceit of a vicar acting in ways you wouldn't expect. So, the Reverend Adam Smallbone, played with amiable anxiety by the always watchable Hollander, smokes, drinks, swears and enjoys sex with his wife.

So, I imagine, do a lot of modern priests - indeed, a group of them are credited as technical advisors - but that doesn't mean the concept is funny in itself. Father Ted admittedly employed similar material, albeit far more inventively than Wood does.

The opening episode takes underpowered swipes at middle-class pretentions and hypocrisies when Smallbone faces a moral dilemma over the sudden rise in church attendance due to a glowing Ofsted report on a local church school. But the episode just dawdles along and not even Hollander's bumbling charm can save it. Rev, like many sitcoms before, may improve as it goes on, but there's precious little here to encourage you to find out.