A panel show featuring a combination of stand-up, off-the-cuff games, performance rounds and discussion; all of which is focused around satirising the week's news.

Dara O'Briain hosts, with a team of three located on each side of him. The current regulars are Hugh Dennis on Dara's right, and Russell Howard and Andy Parsons on his left. In previous series Rory Bremner and Frankie Boyle were regular panellists too.

Our Review: This programme has delivered some great topical humour - with Frankie Boyle dominating in many of the series. However, one look at our message board shows that there is no agreement on who are the best and worst panellists.

One thing is for sure though... the guests rarely get a look in now the main comedians and host are so comfortable in their roles. There is a competitive 'bear pit' atmosphere in the studio as the panellists all fight for time in front of the microphone. Whilst some guests have complained about this set-up, it does result in 30 minutes of quality gags for the TV audience.

The show is well-known for broadcasting some fairly controversial gags. In fact, many of the jokes delivered by the comics during the studio recording are too rude to broadcast, but with so much close-to-the-edge humour, some pretty risky gags do still make it through the edit. Famously, a Frankie Boyle joke about The Queen caused such a stir that it ended up being discussed on Newsnight.

Frankie Boyle has now left the show (he is wisely being replaced by guests rather than a new regular), so the intriguing question that is now being answered is whether Mock the Week's dynamic will change now that it has lost its most aggressive and gag-driven panellist. Early indications suggest that it is becoming a softer and more inclusive show, but has lost some of its satirical bite in the process.

Here's two bug bears we do still have about the show, which we hope they'll address sooner rather than later:

Firstly, they should give up the pretence that the stand-up round is random. We all know the contestants have pre-prepared routines. There's no shame in that.

Secondly, someone needs to take the buzzer away from Dara O'Briain in the final round. His habit of interrupting and cutting off punchlines is pretty consistently aggravating. Dara: the performers are quite capable of working out when they need to move away from the microphone themselves - sit there quietly please!