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

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

Monday October 9

TIMEWASTERS: Daniel Lawrence Taylor offers an intriguing new take on the time-travel genre tonight, penning and starring in this sitcom about a  jazz band who find they can travel to 1926 via a urine-sodden lift in a dilapidated block of flats But they soon find it's not a great time to be black. When the show was announced, Taylor said: 'You don't see that many black people in period dramas, or in time machines, so I thought I'd try to write about both. ITV2, 10pm

Wednesday October 11

THE HAUNTENING: The first of two 15-minute ghost stories that comic Tom Neenan has written for Radio 4, is entitled SoulMaits and inspired by how modern technology has changed the dating scene. He stars alongside Jenny Bede and Kath Hughes from the Gein's Family Gift Shop sketch troupe. 11.15pm.

Thursday October 12

GAMEFACE: Roisin Conaty's E4 sitcom has been a long time coming… three years to be precise, since the pilot episode. Now the full series finally hits screens, with the comic playing a struggling actress whose life hasn't worked out how she'd imagined… and as now she's in her mid-30s that's becoming quite the issue. Roisin talks about the series - which opens with a double bill - here. 9pm

RED DWARF: Always long-awaited by fans - who've probably already watched it on UKTV Play where it's been available for a few days - the cult sci-fi comedy returns for a 12th series. In this opening episode, the crew  stumble across a scientist who claims to have found a cure for evil… and has cloned some of History's Greatest Monster to prove it. Dave, 9pm. This is part of a double-bill of returning genre comedies as James Buckley is also back in the fantasy series Zapped, as an office boy transported to a swords-and-sorcery style alternative universe. 9.40pm

THE HISTORY OF COMEDY:  The eight-part CNN documentary about US stand-up launches in the UK. Each episode tackles a different theme, with the first devoted to female comics and featuring the likes of Kathy Griffin, Betty White and Sarah Silverman. Sky Arts,  9pm

Friday October 13

RICK AND MORTY: The bizarre  animated sci-fi sitcom lands on Comedy Central. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, the show follows the galactic misadventures of cynical scientist Rick and his fretful, easily influenced grandson Morty. In the first episode, Rick takes Morty to another dimension to collect seeds of Mega Trees, which Morty agrees to hide in his rectum. 10.30pm

THE LAST LEG: Armando Iannucci and Sue Perkins guest tonight. Channel 4, 10pm

Published: 8 Oct 2017