There is certainly a lot of improvisation about at the moment. We reviewed this yesterday and there is this show at the Soho Theatre. But there is nothing quite like BBC3's Murder In Successville, which features real celebrities winging it to crack a fictional killing alongside comedians playing it for laughs.

In the first episode of the new series Geordie Shore’s Vicky Pattison joins the Successville police squad. I’d barely call her a celebrity even though she won I'm A Celebrity, but she is actually very funny, very quick-thinking and looks like she would be great fun on a night out.

The plot is a familiar thriller classic. Hard-boiled DI Sleet (Tom Davis) – “I brush my teeth with crime” – is thrown into jail after the body of Nick Knowles is found in his car. The DI is accused of killing the DIY SOS man, so with rookie Pattison’s help he has to bust out of prison and solve the case pronto.

There are three main suspects - politician Len Goodman, played by Paul Whitehouse, Sleet’s ex-lover Lorraine Kelly played by Marie Lawrence and copshop rival DI Lewis Hamilton played by Ben Bailey Smith. Sleet and Hamilton have history going back to police school: “He filled my helmet with custard…”

It’s interesting to see how this all works. Davis presumably has the bare bones of a script but is obviously riffing too when not corpsing at one of Pattison’s cheeky responses. I don’t know how much they rehearsed or how well they knew each other but they’ve got a great rapport and the dialogue flies thick and fast.

Not only that but Pattison turns out to be a pretty good crimebuster, rumbling whodunnit like a right old Poirot. We won’t say who did it ourselves. Besides, spotting who is guilty is pretty incidental. The fun is watching the actors subvert crime show cliches and bounce off each other. Who frankly cares about justice as long as Murder In Successville keeps you laughing your socks off?

Available on iPlayer here.