CRIME drama cliches get the Charlie Brooker treatment in A Touch of Cloth.

You can tell the writer and satirist had a lot of fun playing on and twisting the conventions of Britain’s TV detectives in the sequel to his Sky1 comedy.

The cast seem to have a good time filming it too with John Hannah relishing his role as DI Jack Cloth.

As with every other TV detective, Cloth is haunted but brilliant and Hannah is perfectly cast to give the genre a gentle poke having played numerous police roles including Rebus.

All the other templates of the genre are present and correct including love interest, the brilliantly named Anne Oldman (Suranne Jones) who works in his shadow.

Navin Chowdhry and Adrian Bower are reunited as Cloth’s sidekicks after playing best mates in Teachers and Green Wing’s Julian Rhind-Tutt plays Cloth’s boss...Tom Boss.

Of course, Boss conflicts with Cloth over his maverick approach to the job and sweeps in and out of scenes for dramatic – or in this case comedy – effect.

Cloth also holds a slight grudge as Boss killed his wife but was reinstated after apologising!

This series sees a bunch of bad sorts pull off a bank heist which ends badly with the death of former Eastender Todd Carty (playing himself)...and an endangered owl.

So Cloth goes undercover at a scrap metal dealer/strip club to take down stereotypical crime boss McCratty (Game of Thrones’ Stephen Dillane) and his gruff cookie-cutter thugs.

Also in the mix is Anna Chancellor as mayor wannabe Hope Goodgirl who can barely conceal her evil and cunning.

You have to watch closely as A Touch of Cloth is packed with visual humour and references.

And although lighter in tone than Brooker’s other work like Dead Set and Black Mirror it is an excellent watch for comedy fans or those fed up of dreary dramas.

A Touch of Cloth II is available through Sky on demand and a third series is coming soon