So, Peep Show is back, which means there’s a watchable British sitcom on the air again for the first time in a while. It’s glorious stuff, and just when you think it can’t go any further in exploring the intersection of personal selfishness and public life, it takes one more clodhopping step into the awkward, the repellent, the unsayable.

Writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain are immersed in the characters and world they’ve created, and combine flawless plotting with deep insight into motivation, and - where Jez is concerned - lack of motivation. But for all the failings of Jez and Mark, they’re still recognisably human characters: this isn’t fullblown misanthropy, more an accurate dissection of yer actual human condition.

The show makes full use of its post-watershed status, the latest episode featuring episodes of oral sex, frottage, homosexuality and drug abuse. It’s all in the tradition of Joe Orton, who if he was alive now might lose some of his reputation for scandalousness, but would at least hopefully be employed by Channel 4 or BBC3 to write scabrous sitcoms, a fate he could never have imagined in his lifetime.

The fact that Jez and Mark are played by the inherently likeable Mitchell and Webb (who I’m not much fussed about in their own shows) helps defuse the danger of the scripts: there’s something about their cleancut common room look that mellows out the sheer obscenity of what goes on in Peep Show.

Earlier in the evening, a leading character in British tv had a daughter, and so concerned are the custodians of his reputation that no hint of sexuality sullied this turn of events. The character was Dr Who, and daughter Jenny’s conception, gestation, and birth took all of 2 minutes, after which she sprang into life as a fully-formed adult, with all the vitality and eagerness of a childrens’ tv presenter. And don’t be surprised if that’s where Jenny ends up: this whole episode seemed to be geared up to providing a franchise-spinning opportunity out of an otherwise lacklustre story.

The problem was that what happened was all too familiar to longer term fans of the show: the Doctor arrives on a planet to encounter warring factions and unites them through discovering something they have in common. Perfectly good format as it goes, but there was no sign that the team responsible for this episode had done their groundwork in terms of checking out old episodes or reading good science fiction novels. So instead of an exciting new take on an old theme that would give younger viewers a thrill, we got a fairly tired tale that wouldn’t satisfy any of the children I know or the adults either. A pity: Dr Who can be a remarkable show when everything’s working, as I’m sure it’ll be again later in the series.