The big joke is someone at the Beeb thinks this sitcom is a hoot

John Cleese was right. The old parrotbotherer might be off his rocker as he threatens to quit Britain over Brexit, but he hit the mark when he said the BBC wouldn’t dare make a show as funny as Monty Python’s Flying Circus today.

so many of the things we find instinctively hilarious — the way people look and talk, their mannerisms, their religious oddities, their sexual quirks — are forbidden subjects for comedy now.

The desperately right-on execs at the Beeb would have a fit of the vapours at Terry Jones as a leering naked cinema organist, or Graham Chapman wearing a general’s tunic with lipstick and stockings. even in 2018, those gags are still funny enough to make you spit out your double decaf latte cino... but the BBC won’t admit it.

so what does that leave comedians to work with? Precious little, as Cuckoo (BBC1) proves. This family sitcom could be side-splitting — but it constantly backs away from jokes, muttering: ‘Mustn’t go there!’

hollywood’s Taylor lautner, star of the Twilight movies, is Dale. he’s an oddball escapee from a cult who battens on to a dull english family: lawyer Ken (Greg Davies), wife lorna (helen Baxendale) and their grown-up children.

Though he’s in love with daughter reckless glory-hunters in headlong pursuit of a wheel of Double Gloucester on The Great Cheese Chase (BBC1).

every year, lunatics from around the world join hardened locals bounding down the nearly vertical course at Cooper’s hill in the Cotswold village of Brockworth. It’s a custom that probably dates back to pagan times, though no one really knows. The locals always win, of course. one German reality TV star pulled out this year, as soon as he saw the sheer drop.

last month, I interviewed the current women’s champion, three-times winner Flo earley, 27. Flo can boast she’s faster than Usain Bolt — she takes just over 12 seconds to finish, while the olympic superstar needs 19 seconds to cover 200 metres. of course, Bolt isn’t in freefall.

Flo confessed her fastest times have followed all-night parties: ‘That’s the best preparation, plenty of merry support.’

But this year she’s on the wagon — as well as having badly dislocated her collarbone. ‘Perhaps the mistake was to tackle the hill alcohol-free,’ she joked.

This 30-minute documentary was witty and energetic as it celebrated one of the more eccentric Great British traditions — good, local telly that deserved its national slot.