By their supporting cast shalt thou know them. Or something. The first episode of the second series of Tracey Ullman’s return to British sketch show comedy features an enviable cast list of contemporary comedians and actors.

I probably missed a few but I spotted Tracy-Ann Oberman, Samantha Spiro, Kevin Bishop (Porridge), Lucy Montgomery, Daniel Lawrence Taylor (from Uncle), Jason Forbes (of sketch group Daphne) and Dan Renton Skinner (Angelos and loads more). An unrecognisable Ben Miller even pops up as Rupert Murdoch, though he looks more like Catherine Tate's closeted character Derek. These are all people who could easily front their own TV shows and if they haven’t yet they probably will one day.

The writers are pretty classy too, including Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley and Jonathan Harvey and the script editor is the League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson.

So it is no surprise that there are some really funny moments in the first episode of the new series, such as Ullman as Clare Balding hogging all the BBC work and Nicola Sturgeon plotting world domination. Even a gag as hoary as spoofing mumbly TV dramas is well executed. as we saw with the recent David Walliams series (which I suspect shares some writers), there is life yet in mainstream sketch comedy when it is done well. 

And of course Ullman is a terrific and versatile mimic. It is not just the prosthetics doing all the work as it might seem when she is a dead ringer for Angela Merkel or delinquent national treasure Judi Dench. Like all great impressionists Ullman catches something of her subjects’ essence. 

This is a series that may well divide opinion. There are those that will champion the fact that the BBC has given airtime to a woman not far off sixty and then there are those who will say why can’t the money here have been ploughed into new talent. Well personally I think it’s great to have Ullman back and secondly, there is so much more new(ish) talent on display here and in forthcoming episodes that I think the BBC has mostly got that criticism answered.

Tracey Ullman's Show, 9.30pm, BBC1, Fridays from February 3.