UK's first Vegan Comedy Festival announced

Dig out your tofu jokes, stand by with quinoa quips, next month the UK's first Vegan Comedy Festival will open in Brighton. Twenty comedians will appear over the course of the two-day event, every one of them vegan. The comedy festival is an off-shoot of VegfestUK, a celebration of all things vegan - cookery demonstrations, food stalls, talks, speed-dating - which is now in its 13th year. The odd vegan stand-up like Sara Pascoe, Lucy Porter or Dave Spikey has appeared at the festival in the past, but this will be the first time there has been a dedicated comedy event. Carl Donnelly, Michael Legge, Andrew O'Neill and Harriet Kemsley are among the established names and up-and-comers who will perform as audiences enjoy vegan beer and hotdogs from the bar.

Radio Times review

Jamie Dornan, Julie Walters and Stephen Mangan are the guests. And in a way, that's all we need to know. Already, the conjunction of those names lets us picture the fireworks of conversation that could spark from placing those characters in a room (OK, studio) together. And we know, if there are fireworks to be had, Norton will light every touchpaper.

Dornan appears soon in the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey while Mangan will be in a Sky Arts drama playing a pregnant man. See? Fireworks right there.

QI named a TV turn-on for daters

You can improve your chances of meeting your perfect partner if you're a fan of BBC Two's QI and boast about this on dates, finds a poll by TV Licensing.

Robert Webb: My family values

The actor and comedian talks about the shock of his mother's death when he was 17 and remembers her as his best pal.

Newsnight's Evan Davis to cameo on W1A

Evan Davis has been spotted shooting a cameo for the second series of W1A.

Mark Watson's top ten stand-up comedians

Mark Watson's latest solo show, Flaws, is his most personal (and funniest) yet. As he brings the Edinburgh Fringe hit to London, he runs us through his ten favourite colleagues.

Mark Thomas webchat - post your questions now

The politically astute comedian is on tour with his arms trade exposé Cuckooed. He joins us to answer your questions in a live webchat at 1pm GMT on Monday 16 February. Post yours in the comments below.

Juliette Burton interview

Comedy performer Juliette Burton was recently invited to Whitehall to meet Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at an event giving out awards to 'Mental Health Heroes'.

This week's new live comedy

Previews of Toby, Gary Delaney and Alun Cochrane.

Luisa Omielan: 'I want to be the Beyoncé of comedy'

Brash comedian Luisa Omielan, 32, hit fame with her debut show 'What Would Beyoncé Do?!', but tells Radhika Sanghani why she hates being defined as a 'comedian for women'.

Matt Berry and Morgana Robinson on House of Fools

Today, we bring you our catch-up with Bob's regular house guests, Matt Berry and Morgana Robinson.

Newzoids could be the political comedy we need

It's more difficult for a satire show to shock today than in the 80s. Maybe it should claim politicians are honest and hardworking.

Martin Clunes rules out Men Behaving Badly return

Neil Morrissey would love to bring the show back but an unconvinced Clunes quips: "He's doing it on his own!"

Exclusive clip of Rowan Atkinson recording Mr Bean

Behind-the-scenes video of Atkinson making his CITV show Mr Bean: The Animated Series demonstrates that 25 years on the celebrated actor and comedian still has a great passion for the role.

Satire: where did it all go?

The other day, Tiernan Douieb wrote an interesting piece about the lack of satirical shows on British TV. Despite the fact his surname is onomatopoeic with the sound a Noise Stick makes, he has a valid point.

Review: Matchbox Comedy, Lantern Theatre, Liverpool

Liverpool's new alternative comedy club night Matchbox Comedy kicked off with a fantastic February show featuring a wonderfully diverse platter of acts: one-liners, storytelling - even clowning.

Comedy review: Sean Hughes, Glasgow

This first performance of Sean Hughes's latest show finds him musing on addiction. Establishing the idea of a dialogue between his common sense and the inner voice leading him astray, the Irishman reveals how he knew that he'd become a comedian at the age of ten - an incident leading to him visiting the dentist found him responding to the man's patronising care with reflexive viciousness, if not wit.