BCG Daily Sunday 15th March 2015

Caitlin Moran: how to be a Renaissance woman

With the launch of her debut TV comedy series Raised by Wolves, the columnist, critic, broadcaster and feminist is about to lay siege to yet another male media bastion.

Burnistoun goes live for Glasgow Comedy Festival

Robert Florence pulls out his wallet and proudly flourishes the business card of an executive from Russian state television.

Radio Times review

The brilliant Nina Conti puts herself through the mill here - and produces a funny, sharp documentary about clowning and the way a phobia of clowns has spread to the point where it threatens a whole comic tradition.

Conti is a successful ventriloquist, but decides she should put her skills to use entertaining sick children in hospitals, via a charity that provides "clown doctors". So begins a surprisingly tough process of training, discovering her inner clown and spiralling into an artistic crisis about the wellsprings of comedy.

"How can I go on stage in front of hundreds of people and be fine, but faced with a single child I feel a total fraud?" she asks. As so often, it's her straight-talking Monkey puppet (slash alter ego) that provides the answer: "Because that's all smoke and mirrors, Nina. This is real."

Stewart Lee: privatising BBC3 would be pernicious

If BBC Three is sold to the free-market fundamentalists we'll lose the very idea of public broadcasting within a decade.

Patsy Byrne leaves fortune without realising it

The family of Blackadder star Patsy Byrne have revealed that the actress - best known for her role as Nursie in the second series of the show - was far wealthier than she realised.

Review: Stu Who? Beyond A Joke

Never seemingly growing older, yet doing so disgracefully all the same, veteran act Stu Who? remains a vital presence on the Scottish stand-up circuit.

Video: Pub Landlord Al Murray campaigns in South Thanet

Comedy candidates are a great feature of British elections and this year is no different.

But rarely have these candidates ever attracted as much attention as the Pub Landlord Al Murray who is standing is South Thanet in Kent.

He just happens to be up against another beer-loving character by the name of Nigel Farage.

Adam Fleming went along to his campaign launch.

Piers Morgan in Twitter spat over Comic Relief

Piers Morgan has become involved in a heated Twitter argument with a number of major comedians this evening following his remarks about this year's Comic Relief.

New Trevor & Simon project revealed

Full details have been announced of the new sci-fi project featuring comedians Trevor & Simon and former Dr Who star Sophie Aldred. It is a new fan-funded comedy sci-fi audio adventure for kids from 8 to 80, and beyond with a Kickstarter campaign starting 24th March.

Review: John Shuttleworth

So, what once may have brought an affectionate, self-mocking chuckle of recognition in a Barnsley club in 1993, now seems wince-making in an Edinburgh music hall in 2015.

Nina Conti: Clowning Around, TV review

We know laughter is the best medicine, but who knew that comedy's medical ethics could be so tricky?

James Corden interview

Corden says he landed the job almost by accident.

Review: The RYND Comedy Showcase

RYND's monthly comedy night made for a great evening of entertainment with three fantastic acts and compered by the brilliant Conor Drum.

Leigh Francis puts holiday privacy ahead of USA plans

Leigh Francis insists he is one of the few TV stars who has no desire to crack America - because he wants to stay anonymous when he goes on holiday.