Smith & Jones

The strain shows most in the field of comedy, where ability is now spread so thinly that strong material and consummate performance seldom coexist in a single show, so I gave thanks last night for the return of Smith and Jones (BBC1). In the tradition of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones are a double act without a straight man, both possessing an immaculate sense of timing and a natural comic flair, and both taking an innocent delight in smuggling enormous amounts of hilariously filthy material onto the network, without anyone apparently noticing.