Mark Kermode’s Secrets Of Cinema: British Comedy

BBC4, 9pm What makes a successful British comedy? Kermode (below) kicks off his new series with a look at how they win laughs by tapping into the public’s abiding national preoccupations, getting us to root for the underdog and playing around with our views of class and manners. He also reveals how pastiches and parodies from these shores can take the Hollywood studios down a peg or two.