I'm just catching up with Friday's episode and before it gets worse, I just want to point out that the first 3 and a half minutes have been brilliant and nearly caused me to choke on a bit of celery.

And yes, Tessa Wyatt does look strangely like Olivia Colman. It's all in the mouth.

"Shit, it's Paddy Ashdown. It's Indiana Jones. It's Indiana Ashdown."

Haha.

Well, I actually thought that was one of the better episodes of this season.

I actually thought that was one of the best episodes of any sitcom, ever. Absolutely sublime. And moreso, when you think that this is the fifth series. How many sitcoms can you think of where the fifth series was every bit as good as the first? Even Hi De Hi got ropey after five years.

I can't say I called it as the first episode not written by Armstrong + Bain, but I did think there was something not quite right about it. A mix of safe stuff (Mark likes military history) and more extreme stuff (bum rape, you want to fuck my mum, more swearing generally). It did work, though.

(It was by Simon Blackwell, who worked with Armstrong on The Thick Of It and by day writes autocue gags for Have I Got News For You. I imagine Armstrong + Bain are busy with their forthcoming BBC1 sitcom - Blackwell's working on that as well.)

Friday night's was a bit 'meh' as well. There was one moment that made me laugh out loud, but I can't remember what it was, so it didn't leave much of an impression.

Oh, I think it was the line about a red setter running after a tennis ball.

Will we ever meet the oft-mentioned Pedge?

The funniest bit was the idea that only someone who's so drugged off their tits they drive to Wolverhampton shouting their own name out the window of the car would think of making a supergroup from members of Hard-Fi and The Kaiser Chiefs.

I liked Mark's dream of being alone with a load of sex therapists turning sour, but other than that, Worst Episode Ever. The manager woman just wasn't convincing.

"Sitting on a rock, wanking and crying" made me choke on a mouthful of coffee. The line itself is not stunning I suppose (and very Charlie Brooker) but it was all in the delivery.

I thought the manager woman was good. She reminded me of Toni's music-biz type sister in the first ever episode: "It was my idea that we could sell Acid Jazz to the over-thirties"

go on, tell them about the time we met Mappin and Webb, YATR

So, last night, then. Jeremy joins a cult, and Mark gets Sophie pregnant (or does he?). Quite an improvement on recent weeks, and the geeky dungeons & dragons stuff with Dobbie made me laugh.

yeah, i thought that was a great episode. the series has been a bit patchy but the mark/sophie storyline has always been good and believable, so it was good to see that come back into it more. super hans smashing the telly was a joy, as was the roleplaying.

The wife and I laughed like loons at last night's episode. This really is the best comedy programme of the last 5 years.

The 'Beardhammer' bit was superb.

If Mark's first chance to use his "bachelor condom" was with Sophie, do we presume it was unsafe sex with Jez's manager (though she seemed the type to carry her own protection)? Pertaining to that, what was used when Jez's half-sister raped him?

I probably liked the last episode the least of this series. I think Mark's romantic failures are becoming as genuinely frustrating and over-relied on for the comedy as Frasier Crane's.