Finally got a chance to catch Australian comedy Kath and Kim on BBC2 last night - a whole episode for once. I'd seen a bit of an earlier episode and some trailers. It's fantastic and I commend it to the house. Fizzing dialogue, unusual characters and played with real comic gusto. All of which made it stand out from the show beforehand The Robinsons. I just felt that I had seen all the characters before. I think it's the sit-com equivalent of the boardgame Cranium where you take the best bits of every other well known game and merge them into one:

The thrusting-older-buck-business-brother is basically the Robert Bathurst character from Cold Feet. Hugh Bonneville is very good but it's all been done.

Martin Freeman is loveable and funny as Martin Freeman but being a 30-something bloke terrified because his ex-wife says he's crap in bed is hardly a Copernican revolution in mirth.

Then there's the career focussed sister who decides she wants a baby but not a partner, but get this: the man in the office who she selects for procreative duties is gay! And there's the bitchy parents....

Sorry it won't do. If I think of my favourite TV comedy over the last 10 years - things like Spaced, Frasier, Father Ted, Black Books and The Office they all brought us characters that were new yet recognisable. That's the secret of great comedy. That and timing.