PEEP SHOW (Channel 4, Friday March 13th, 10.30pm)

Amongst its fans, the general consensus seems to be that the third series of Peep Show wasn't as good as the first two, and having recently revisited all three I'd probably agree. However, series three wasn't quite the dip in quality that I remembered; the first two episodes were probably the weakest of the series, but the rest was still head and shoulders above any other British sitcom produced in the last decade (faint praise). So, with a mixture of excitement (at the return of an old favourite) and anxiety (fear that it was going to be a case of diminishing returns) I watched the first episode of this, the fourth series of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's “cult” internal-monologuing sitcom.

Plotwise, this series picks up where the last ended: Mark (David Mitchell, or “PC” as he is now perhaps better known) is about to marry Sophie (Olivia Colman, the first “Bev” from the AA adverts). Even though he has realised he doesn't love her, he can't bring himself to break it off. He and Jez (Robert Webb; “Mac”) visit Sophie's parents for the weekend, to celebrate her birthday. Chaos, inevitably, ensues: Mark ends up covered in blood after ripping the head off a pheasant, Jez is worshipped by Sophie's weird brother and seduced by her mother, Mark accidentally admits to Sophie's dad that he doesn't really love her, Sophie's dad burns down the barn of a man he suspects of sleeping with his wife, and, after Mark and Sophie are given a cottage by Sophie's parents, Mark decides that it might be worth his while to marry Sophie after all, much to Sophie's dad's anger.

If I hadn't seen it for myself, that breakdown of the episode's plot would probably dissuade me from ever tuning in, and under lesser writers the it could well have been awful. In the capable hands of Armstrong and Bain, however, what could so easily have descended into slapdash farce, gross-out rudeness and sub-Gervais wince-inducing embarrassment becomes well-crafted, well-observed comedy, with fully-fleshed characters that avoid the trap of stereotype. It would have been easy to make Sophie's dad a generic overprotective/psychotic sitcom father; instead he is impressed with Mark's honesty. He is trapped in a loveless marriage, unable to bring himself to leave – perhaps this is a sign of what Mark will become in 30 years' time, if he marries Sophie? Similarly, Sophie's brother is not unlike a younger incarnation of Jez, trying to cling to the coattails of people who are more successful than he is, which is something of a role reversal: Jez is usually the sycophantic loser trying to impress those he considers to be cool, here it is the impressee rather than the impresser, or he would be, if there was such a word as “impressee”. The development of Sophie between series is also of note: in series 3 she had started to go “off the rails”, clubbing and experimenting with drugs, while in this series she is solely interested in her imminent marriage and the prospect of starting a family, suggesting that her wildness was one last hurrah before settling down for her proper adult life. Character development? In a mere sitcom?! Well, I never!

Most importantly, it's still very, very funny. Mitchell and Webb's other projects have been hit and miss; their sketch shows for radio and television have been enjoyable but patchy, Webb has appeared in dross like Blessed and Confetti, and it's become impossible to watch a panel show without seeing David Mitchell's grinning, ubiquitous face. However, Peep Show re-establishes their position as two of the country's finest comedy performers – they are perfect for their roles, and the funniest bits of the show involve conversations between the pair of them, whether verbally or inside their heads. Any doubts about the standards of the show being maintained should have been assuaged at the sight of Mark's goatee in the first few seconds of the show – few actors could raise a laugh with inappropriate facial hair alone, but David Mitchell is one of them.

It wasn't perfect. The appearance of Super Hans in an early scene was somewhat pointless, and seemed forced in as a crowd-pleaser. It seemed out of character for Mark to be so insistent that Jez join him on his trip to visit Sophie's parents - perhaps essential for the set-up of the episode, granted, but out of character nonetheless. Also, at the end of the show Channel 4 trailed something they called “Peter Kaye's Phoenix Nights” - I know that Channel 4 is hardly the bastion of quality broadcasting that it once was, but that's no excuse for being unable to spell the three-letter surname of one of your most popular stars. But that's not the fault of Armstrong and Bain, or Mitchell and Webb – along with the rest of the cast and crew, they produced 30 minutes of high quality sitcom. If they can keep this up for the next eleven commissioned episodes then I hope series six and beyond are on the cards.

GET A GRIP (ITV1, Wednesday 11th April, 10pm)

Why is it that so many comedians these days are happy to shit out work that they must know is beneath them? Is it simply that once they reach a certain point in their careers their good ideas dry up and they don't realise (or care), or is it that, once successful, they no longer feel the urge to even try? Did Vic and Bob really think that any of Monkey Trousers was worthy of them? Do you think Armando is proud of Time Trumpet? Does Harry Enfield think he's produced anything of worth in the last decade? Yet, despite their past indiscretions, were any of the aforementioned comedians to announce a new project I'd be counting down the days to transmission, under the naively optimistic delusion that it could be a return to form.

The much-maligned Ben Elton is another comedian whose work I (and, almost certainly, you) have enjoyed immensely in the past – The Young Ones, Blackadder, Filthy Rich & Catflap and Happy Families were all at least partially from his pen, and that's before we take into consideration his stand-up routines and corresponding BBC series. True, it is irritating it is to see him work with the likes of Lloyd-Webber, and last year's BBC sitcom Blessed was spirit-crushingly awful, but even so there's still the hope that he still has it in him somewhere, which is why I tuned into Get a Grip with my fingers well and truly crossed.

The premise of Get a Grip is thus: Ben Elton and Alexa 'Popworld' Chung sit at a desk and partake in cross-generational banter, with Ben as the grumpy, cynical curmudgeon and Alexa as the hip, sassy young 'thing'. Due to the difference in their ages they have very different outlooks on life and different opinions, and from hence humour arises. Their discussions are broken up with sketches to illustrate certain points, similar to those in Ben's BBC series in the 90s. Sadly, it doesn't quite work.

Compared to what we know he is capable of, this is clearly B-grade material – indeed, some of it is so outdated that it could be material he rejected from 1998's The Ben Elton Show. Last week we had jokes about Tinky Winky's sexuality; this week about the size of Lara Croft's breasts. Topical! The theme of the show was ostensibly "the Man crisis", with observations about the differences between men and women – men can fold maps, men can't find anything, women can multitask... you know the score. Nothing groundbreaking, though admittedly there were a few amusing gags.

Another problem is Alexa herself: she's just not good enough. See, I quite like the concept of the show, and even though it could be argued that it would work just as well as a solo Elton stand-up series, giving him a straight (wo)man to bounce off isn't such a bad idea, but Alexa can't pull it off (insert your own 'knob gag' reference here, if you want). Her delivery is too stilted, too obviously read off an autocue, and she breaks out of character by laughing at Ben's jokes all too often. For the show to work, the sidekick must be straight-faced and must sound like she is engaging in a natural conversation – Alexa fails on both counts. The shoehorned-in phrases she uses to emphasise how "down wid da kidz" she is are also laughable – continually calling Ben "babes", telling him to "get with the programme" etc, though to be fair to Alexa she's only (badly) reading the script she's been given.

Yet. despite these flaws, there's still the occasional frustrating glimpse of how great the show could have been. Ben Elton is still a superb comedy performer, and still clearly capable of writing some genuinely amusing stuff. The line "could you kindly send your child to school tomorrow dressed as an Elizabethan" came out of nowhere at the end of a fairly mundane routine about parenting, and almost floored me, and when his material has a bit of anger and passion to it the old Ben we used to know still shines through, like the bits on crap Channel 4 list shows and Iraq. Unfortunately, these highlights are few and far between, and the rest is just middle-aged, middle-class tedium.

It could have been good. It should have been good. Heck, occasionally it is good. But not good enough, often enough. With a strict script editor and a better co-host this could have been Ben Elton's return to form, but unfortunately it's just a not-very-near miss. I almost hope this gets a second series, as if Ben's scripts are tightened up and Alexa's delivery improves then perhaps... see, there's that naïve optimism again.

BIFFOVISION (BBC3, Monday 26th March, 3:15am)

Did you know that one particular episode of BBC3 moronedy 'Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps' has been repeated no less than 57 times? Fifty seven times! And, despite this, the only free slot that BBC3 could find to premiere this pilot was at 3:15am, inevitably following a repeat of 2POLAAPOC (it doesn't even abbreviate well). Apparently it had to be screened before April for financial reasons or something, and there wasn't a free slot in the schedule, so they just bunged it out once their regular programming had ended, but crikey: couldn't they have dropped just one of their hundreds of repeats of Two Pints? Or Little Britain? Or any of the other “comedy” that the channel dribbles onto the screen?

It would be a shame if Biffovision doesn't get re-aired in an early time slot, as it certainly deserves a wider audience than the dozens who have seen it so far – however, whether a wider audience will appreciate, understand or enjoy it is up for debate. Writers Paul Rose and Tim Moore may spend most of their time these days writing children's television and travelogues respectively, but it was on much-missed videogames-cum-surreal gibberish teletext page Digitiser that both cut their writing teeth, livening up their games reviews with bizarre characters and nonsensical catchphrases. Biffovision is an attempt to translate Digitiser-style humour from the pages of teletext to television proper.

Much like Vic Reeves Big Night Out, Biffovision appears to be a collection of silly, near-impenetrable in-jokes turned into a low-budget TV programme, and will probably garner a similar reaction: those who like it will love it, but others will feel more confused than amused. Combining the skewed, off-kilter mock-80s feel of Look Around You with the subverted kids' show format of Wonder Showzen, Biffovision is ostensibly a parody of old Saturday morning TV, presented by Mr Hugo (James Lance and his always-punchable face), posh girl co-presenter Peggy (Ingrid Oliver) and obligatory puppet sidekick BW (Simon Greenall). Oliver and Greenall are perfectly cast, delivering the silliest of lines completely deadpan, and while Lance occasionally mis-delivers he certainly shows some promise in the role. Whod've thought?!

The programme is visually impressive. The set is a cross between Swap Shop and Rainbow, the animation on Scranton-K (a re-imagining of Scooby Doo as a naked man with a shoe for a head) is a perfect Hanna-Barbera pastiche right down to the seemingly-random bursts of canned laughter, and the puppets of BW and Mr Safety are both disturbing yet strangely charming.

The attention to detail in Biffovision suggets that it's a labour of love for its writers. The children in the audience have bizarre name badges (“Oil”, “Fear” and “Pleasing M”, for example), and the subliminal messages to 'Vote Conservative' dotted throughout the show are bafflingly amusing. There are also some splendid visual gags, such as the camera pulling away from the cheering audience to reveal that they aren't facing the presenter. It's funnier when you see it, I promise.

However, there is definite room for improvement. Inevitably for a pilot, especially for a sketch show, it's very hit-and-miss. The good includes the teacher who is paranoid that his pupils will be amused by his name (Mr Botton), a sketch that revels in its childishness and that has a completely unpredictable and ridiculous punchline. Among the bad are the designer who creates a new corporate logo by drawing breasts on the old one – a mediocre idea poorly implemented, and hampered by some ropey acting. Some of the sketches sit awkwardly within the context of a spoof children's show, regardless of their quality. Perhaps this is intentional, but it does bring the viewer out of the “reality” of the show (using the word very, very loosely).

There are also times when the influences are perhaps a little too obvious – the sketch about the baby factory is great, but the “let's hope he doesn't grow up to be a racist” punchline reeks strongly of Wonder Showzen, and the ending of a sketch with a Points of View-style letter of complaint may well be a deliberate homage to Python, but it's not a particularly funny one. Perhaps if the show gets a series it will find its own voice – it's already on its way, it just breaks into impressions of the voices of other shows a little too frequently.

Criticisms aside, considering the timescale in which this was thrown together, and the obvious budget constraints, Biffovision is a triumph. My worries that it would descend either into Monkey Dusty over-the-top darkness, or superficially whimsical Booshish rubbish were unfounded, with the balance of silliness (lots) and darkness (the tiniest hints) perfectly judged. It won't be the next Little Britain, and there won't be dolls of BW and Mr Safety in shops (sadly), but it would be perfect for a late-night slot on BBC3. Hopefully, if it does go to series, Rose and Moore will ramp up the absurdity even further, and produce something truly disorientating, incomprehensible and unpredictable. At the very worst, at least it would mean one less slot for Susan Nickson's tripe.

KOMBAT OPERA PRESENTS SPOUSE CHANGE (Sunday 4th March, BBC2, 10pm)

Kombat Opera's TV debut was back in 2001 as part of little-remembered late-night BBC2 Simon Munnery vehicle Attention Scum, in which the composer Richard Thomas and opera singer Lore Lixemberg would perform insults in the form of brief operatic vignettes. Thomas' next project was the controversial Jerry Springer the Opera, the first act of which is The Jerry Springer Show (or an exaggerated approximation of it) reimagined as an opera. Kombat Opera Presents is Thomas' attempt to do the same for five other TV programmes. Last week's episode was an amusing recreation of The Apprentice (renamed The Applicants, allowing for a delightfully childish play on words – think about it), and I'm sure you can work out for yourselves which show 'Spouse Change' was parodying.

It was 'Wife Swap'.

The families involved in the 'spouse change' were Roy and Darryl Gay, a bohemian gay couple from Pennsylvania; and Chester and Gloria Winchester, racist, homophobic born-again Christians from Alabama, who “believe every word of the Bible, including words that are not in the Bible”. Cue culture clash!

Kombat Opera Presents it at its best when playing with its own form, such as when the choir of opera singers sing the on-screen captions, or interrupt the narrator, the only character who doesn't sing all of their dialogue, a role performed this week by Simon 'Michael off I'm Alan Partridge' Greenall doing an American accent (and doing it quite well). It is these moments that are, obviously, unique to this show.

Putting the opera to one side and concentrating on the comedy, there is a lot to like about Kombat Opera Presents in this respect, too, such as Darryl's reaction to the Winchester's trailer (“this is like eye rape!”), and a nice visual gag when Gloria, in an attempt to “cure” Roy of his sinful homosexuality, discards some photos that they have in their lounge – Elton John, then Wham, then Tom Cruise...

Jerry Springer the Opera was primarily a satire on trash TV culture, but Kombat Opera is perhaps more light-hearted in tone, and while this clash of redneck and homosexual does initially seem to be satirical, it's really just a way of creating a situation that lends itself to humour. Similarly, Spouse Change doesn't really have any point to make about Wife Swap or reality TV – other than a comment about it being the same every week, the show isn't critiqued at all, and the parody does seem affectionate rather than attacking. Of note is that both episodes so far have included material about the church and Christians, perhaps inspired by the hate campaign waged on Richard Thomas and co-writer Stewart Lee by Christian Voice over 'Jerry Springer The Opera'. Stewart Lee dealt with this by including material in his stand-up that he knew would be even more offensive to Christian Voice; this could be Thomas's attempt to do the same.

However, I don't think that Thomas's overall aim is to satirize, but rather to amuse, at which he is mostly successful. There are a few songs that drag for just a little bit too long, and the end of the episode was something of an anti-climax, but on the whole Kombat Opera Presents is an innovative and funny comedy show, which is a rarity in these times of prank-wankery like 'Balls of Steel', non-comedy like Catherine Tate and Ricky Fucking Gervias. I think it's unlikely that there will be a second series, not due to the BBC being shit this time, but I think the show's format dictates that it won't be possible to produce too many episodes without becoming repetitive and without the novelty wearing off. But don't worry about that – enjoy it while it lasts.