The best sitcoms are always about characters who are trapped – from Hancock and Steptoe, Red Dwarf and Porridge to The Office and beyond the comedy comes from people being unable to leave their situation however hard they try. The first episode of the third series of Here We Go literally finds the cast trapped.

 

Everyone should be going out to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Paul (Jim Howick) and Rachel (Katherine Parkinson) by visiting an Escape Room, but instead Sue (Alison Steadman) has gone out and everybody else is locked in thanks to a new hi-tech security device fitted by a handyman played with laid back charisma by Jamali Maddix.

 

So their house becomes an escape room itself. They should have called the episode Not Going Out as we watch them trying to find an exit. There's a small window open upstairs, for example, but instead of someone climbing out, Robin (Tom Basden) climbs in and joins them.

 

This is half an hour of inspired sitcom magic. Despite the occasionally shakey DIY camerawork it is easy to forget the premise that it is being filmed by their son Sam (Jude Morgan-Collie). The real beauty of the piece is writer Tom Basden's script. What with this and his lead role in The Ballad of Wallis Island (and his appearances in Mandy, which has just returned) he is really on a roll. Anyone who can get a laugh out of the phrases "bum rash" and "fully erect" without sounding cheesy must be doing something right.

 

And of course this is a 24-carat solid gold cast. Alison Steadman brings a touch of Mike Leigh/Gavin & Stacey class to proceedings, Katherine Parkinson shines just by repeatedly banging her head against the wall and Jim Howick will bring smiles to the faces of Ghosts fans mourning the end of the spooky series.

 

This is clever comedy but also, in this new series, very mainstream comedy. It doesn't go straight for the comedy jugular like Lee Mack's aforementioned Not Going Out, but in its own ingenious way it certainly knows how to hit the funny bone.