Including a typically dark, blood-soaked tale from sketch monsters Tarot and the all-too-familiar, overt sentimentality and self-satisfaction of Ricky Gervais, the BBC’s 11 new comedy shorts boast a diverse spread of talent. Conceived as standalone films, several of the best are those that nevertheless feel like pilots for series, with Scotland well represented.

Based on The Beano comic strip but given an adult twist with its exploration of mental health, Calamity James (★★★☆☆) benefits from Mark Bonnar on assured likeable arsehole form. But he’s matched by Dylan Blore, bringing pained soul to the luckless title character. Set in a failing Dundonian funeral home, A Better Place (★★★☆☆) is gentler and less cartoonish, yet sketch-act Book Of Jam capture some of the family tensions of Six Feet Under and there are solid supporting turns from Jonathan Watson and Jocelyn Jee Esien.

A standout with obvious legs to run and run is Jack Carroll’s Mobility (★★★★☆), in which the stand-up, Ruben Reuter and Zak Ford-Williams trade insults as sixth formers with disabilities driven to school on the mobility bus. The script is a tad raw but enjoyably rascally and foul-mouthed, with the three leads having great chemistry. Another highlight is Kirk Flash’s adaptation of his podcast and the sole sketch offering of these films, This Is Gay (★★★★☆). This irreverent, occasionally mind-bending send-up of contemporary gay experience wears its Chris Morris influence on its sleeve.

Probably the most off-the-wall entry is Birdsong (★★★★☆) from sketch oddballs Uncle Shortbread, starring Colin Hoult as a man persecuted by a trio of crows into joining their band, with the character comic superbly conveying total mental collapse. Another strong calling card is the understatedly eccentric Funboys (★★★★☆) from Northern Ireland’s Super Lemon, aka Rian Lennon and Rían Early, who star alongside Coronation Street legend Charles Lawson as childishly innocent young men, emotionally, religiously, sexually repressed as they desperately convene for ‘juice parties’.

BBC Comedy Short Films are available now on BBC iPlayer.