The best TV and radio comedy of the week

The best of the week's comedy on TV and radio.

Monday April 10

THE HISTORY OF BLACKADDER: Nothing special in the Yesterday channel playing out reruns of Blackadder, but this time around it is airing them alongside relevant documentaries to provide some historical context. Tony Robinson (who else?) introduces both in new conversations with Blackadder producer John Lloyd. Yesterday, 7pm. The channel is also airing Blackadder: The Whole Rotten Saga tonight, about the making of the sitcom. 9pm.

Tuesday April 11

PETER KAY'S CAR SHARE: In the first of four new episodes, supermarket assistant manager John Redmond (Peter Kay) and promotions assistant Kayleigh Kitson (Sian Gibson) now find themselves, reluctantly, having to make the daily commute to work separately. The whole series will also be available on BBC iPlayer as a box set immediately after this episode airs. BBC One, 9pm

OUR FRIEND VICTORIA: BBC One launches a six-part archive series in which some of the comedian's work is introduced and celebrated by her friends, peers and co-stars. Episode one is fronted by Julie Walters, who looks at her friend's take on age: from naïve teenagers like Chrissie, the long-distance swimmer, to the older Dinnerladies and the hip-creaking old waitress who Walters famously played in the Two Soups sketch. BBC One, 9.30pm

Wednesday April 12

BELIEVE IT: Jon Canter's not quite true autobiography of Richard Wilson returns to Radio 4 for a new series, with the first episode featuring guest appearances from Sir Antony Sher, David Tennant and

Angus Deayton as themselves. Radio 4, 11am.

Thursday April 13

BASKETS: Zach Galifianakis plays a failed clown on Baskets, a series he co-created with Louis CK and which launches on the Fox channel tonight. Galifianakis plays Chip Baskets, who fails to get a degree at a prestigious clowning school in Paris and winds up stuck with a job at a local rodeo in his hometown of Bakersfield, California, as well as Chip's twin brother Dale. Fox, 10.30pm

BUCKET: In this new BBC Four comedy, Miriam Margolyes stars as the eccentric Mim who celebrates turning 70 by writing a bucket list. Item one: dragging her reserved daughter Fran – played by series creator Frog Stone – on the mini-break they never had. BBC Four, 10pm.

STAR PARADE – THE Benny Hill SHOW Radio 4 Extra marks next week's 25th anniversary of Benny Hill's death with a 1963 episode of this show, in which Fred Scuttle prepares to take off to go to the Moon, while the monkeys at London Zoo begin to talk. Radio 4 Extra, 8.30am.

Published: 9 Apr 2017