Jonathan Ross

It has been some time since Andy got his break with the BBC but time has seen his sitcom gradually go from what he had originally seen to something so broad that even Paul Shane has dropped out of it. However a break is a break and "When The Whistle Blows" is on after Eastenders which is a good slot no matter what. However his camp, catchphrase-based is panned by critics even if it does draw six million viewers and Andy finds himself facing up to the fact that he has sold out his integrity for the sake of getting success.

Following on from the first series, the focus changes from the "little people" in the background to the nature of growing fame and how it changes people. So we follow Andy as he sells his soul in return for BBC airtime and takes his sitcom from being a potential "Office" to being something that even "Dinnerladies" stands head and shoulders above. In doing this the series cleverly gets more mileage from its characters while also still holding to the core ideals of the first series, by which I mean the painful humiliation and misunderstandings that are out in life no matter who you are. Of course this is not to suggest that it is brilliant because it isn't – it is far too limited in ideas to be brilliant but, like the first series, it still manages to be very funny on a regular basis.

I'm frantically trying to avoid comparisons with The Office because I don't think it is fair on Gervais BUT the lack of depth in the series is an obstacle to it being as good or as painfully funny as that series. It is still well worth watching though because it does do what it does very well. This time round the funniest moments are in Andy's dealings with his agent and the latter's character has been brought into it a lot more. He is gleefully stupid and insensitive and Merchant takes to him like a badger to a main road. Gervais is not the best thing in it then because he is normally the butt of the humiliation or the plot device that brings us to certain places. Gervais does well to try and bring some humanity to his character but he hasn't done enough as a writer to make this work for the audience. Having said that though he is very good as the butt of the jokes. Jensen is reliable as the dippy Maggie, who is fun but has a simple character who hasn't changed much across the series – her role is to land Gervais in it and this is what she does. As before, the celebrity cameos provide laughs in sending themselves up but most of them are used in similar ways and their impact is slightly minimised. That said, there aren't many weak links and I enjoyed all of them even if I was glad that the second season looked like it was trying to make them a small part of the show rather than the whole shooting match.

Overall then an enjoyable season of ongoing humiliations that charts a natural development from season one. The lack of depth or real character development means that it is unlikely to have legs beyond those given it by the stars but it is still very funny stuff and has some very good material that easily satisfies for 30 minutes at a time although unlike The Office, it will likely fade as the fame of the cameos so.

If you said to me in 1986 that Robert de Niro would one day drop in on a BBC sitcom. I would had said get away.

There he is. The great man himself in this episode of Extras.

The title of the episode is Jonathan Ross. At the time Ross had a chat show on the BBC as well as a film review program. His wife Jane Goldman was a screenwriter and wrote Stardust, a movie De Niro had just finished filming. Ross was instrumental in getting De Niro in this episode.

Andy is getting used to success. He is hanging around with low wattage celebrities. He befriends Jonathan Ross after appearing in his chat show. Andy is also contemplating changing agents, he has outgrown Darren.

Andy throws a challenge to Darren to arrange a meeting with De Niro or else he is fired.

You now see Andy is outgrowing his old friends. Maggie hardly sees him apart from when they get together to see an ill boy at the hospital. Even then they are rudely interrupted by Robert Lindsay who is trying to steal the limelight.

It is wonderfully daft, Barry and Darren getting turned on by a striptease pen. There is plenty of squirming as Andy tries to avoid seeing a sick boy at the hospital. Then Robert Lindsay having his nose put out of joint as he is ignored by the mother of the sick boy.