Review of the week: Tracey Ullman's Show

I might sound like a grumpy old grandad who's out of step with everything that's cool and trendy but really: what's all this fuss about Tracey Ullman?

Tracy Ullman on why Monty Python 'p****d her off'

Tracey Ullman said she tore into Michael Palin over Monty Python's all-male line-up when they first met. The actress, 57, said: "Python used to p*** me off when I was young. When I met Michael I said, 'Why did you never have women in the show?' He was so adorable and said, 'I think we were rather frightened of them' - so it was easier for Terry Jones to do it."

The sketch show returns with our Tracey as adept as ever at playing a range of characters. Prepare for a delinquent Dame Judi Dench, a Bond-villainesque Nicola Sturgeon and Clare Balding's need to present every TV show going ("I just want to help!"). But the best sketch by far makes grotesques of Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch (Ben Miller) at a painfully strained family dinner - more risks like this, please.

Tracey Ullman's Show review

Ullman throws herself at it with gusto and it's iconoclastic enough to elicit gasps as well as giggles.

Preview: Tracy Ullman's Show series 2

This week sees the return of Tracy Ullman's Show to BBC One, with the first episode airing on Friday 3rd February at 9:30pm. As with the first series, a bevy of TVO regulars are involved: this time around Dan Skinner, Tracy Ann Oberman, Lucy Montgomery and Laurence Rickard are part of the impressive ensemble cast. But is the end result worth a look? TVO editor Paul Holmes took a sneaky peek...

TV preview: Tracey Ullman's Show, BBC1

By their supporting cast shalt thou know them. Or something. The first episode of the second series of Tracey Ullman's return to British sketch show comedy features an enviable cast list of contemporary comedians and actors.