"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. And let my liver rather heat with wine, than my heart cool with mortifying groans."

In the second part of this conversation with my former Sitcom Geeks co-host James Cary (pictured) we talk about how it's possible to use humour to explore the most difficult subjects. James is one of the most successful audience sitcom writers in the UK, having worked on a host of TV and radio audience shows including Miranda, My Hero, Think The Unthinkable and My Family. Together we nerded out for 222 episodes about all matters sitcom.

James's own sitcom Bluestone 42 ran on the BBC for three seasons, and was set among a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan. Really you can't get much darker than that can you? Well you can, and another hit show that James worked on Miranda, did just that.

Miranda was a massive hit show and had a deceptive lightness of touch that allowed Miranda Hart and the writers to explore the darkest aspects of what it means to be a single woman in her 30s and all the pressures she is under to get married, have children and have a good job. We talk about the many examplesin Shakespeare where the subjects of life and death are as likely to be explored in the tragedies as they are in the comedies.

Since becoming obsessed with Shakespeare I have come to understand how so much of the audience TV show, my favourite form of comedy, owes its debt directly to the plays of Shakespeare. I thought I might struggle to persuade James of this latest theory but it turns out that he has his own favourite Shakespeare obsessions as well.

In the first part of the interview, we talked about what an audience sitcom is and how it sits as a direct descendant of the old English music hall and the plays of Shakespeare. In this week's episode we talk about comedy and religion, funny characters and the parallels between Shakespeare characters abndsitcom greats.

To find out more about what James is currently up to checkout his website jamescary.com

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