I caught the last half of ITV's new Friday night sitcom with Ade Edmondson last night.

What utter rubbish, does no one at ITV bother to read a comedy script before greenlighting a production. Is the head of comedy on horse tranquilisers or something? A shame cos Edmondson isn't a bad physical comedian even if he is limited to playing versions of Vyvian or Eddie Hitler, but what can he do with a bunch of lame jokes.

As for the Chinese chracter I thought laughing at (rather than with) foreigners had been quite rightfully consigned to the dustbin of the past. It bordered on a racist parody designed for a few cheap laughs.

How come Ch4 (Father Ted, The IT Crowd), BBC (Ideal, Red Dwarf, Saxondale, Mighty Boosh even My Family) and even Ch 5 with Suburban Shootout can do it, but ITV's past is littered with desparatly unfunny tripe like Babes in the Wood and that godawful sitcom written for Davina McCall that even Ed Byrne couldn't raise a laugh from.