BCG Daily Tuesday 27th October 2015

Video: Just (over) a minute with Nicholas Parsons

For nearly 50 years, Nicholas Parsons has chaired Radio 4 panel show Just a Minute. So, when Radio Times met the veteran broadcaster, we turned the tables and set the timer.

Ricky Gervais to host Golden Globes for fourth time

Ricky Gervais is to return for the fourth time as the host of Hollywood's Annual Golden Globe Awards.

BBC's Citizen Khan set to be remade in Germany

Corporation in talks to change format of sitcom so it is set around an immigrant Turkish family.

Morgan and West: For Kids - The Lowry, Salford review

For Kids might be accurate, but don't write it off for adults either, this is a show that can be enjoyed by the young at heart of any age.

Andy Hamilton: Change Management - Salford, review

There's plenty of laughs in Change Management, it's two hours of reliable, cosy comedy. Hamilton is a likeable, entertaining comedian, but, as with the TV panel shows that Hamilton frequents, it's all pretty throwaway, and there's little here that will be memorable by next week.

Behind the scenes of Glitchy

The crew and contestants of ITV2's new prank show are ensconced in the Forest of Dean. But who's laughing at who?

Why you should go see... Richard Gadd

Richard Gadd stunned the lucky few who could get into his constantly packed free show at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. He's now taking that multiple five star show to London to both Soho Theatre and Invisible Dot. London should be excited. And a little bit scared.

Dan Clark interview

As comedian Dan Clark approaches middle age, he finds that he still can't quite work out his audience.

Radio Times review

Sharon Horgan's young Irishwoman meets a handsome American stranger (co-writer Rob Delaney) in a bar and embarks on a wild affair that they both know will end when he heads back to the US. Problem is, she then falls pregnant and they decide to stay together and keep the child.

It's a premise that isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. She obviously needs the support, while he is adamant that his kid will have what he didn't - a dad who sticks around.

It's grown-up, rude, the sex scenes are hilarious and the two leads have a genuine rapport in a comedy that has you rooting for this odd couple all the way through, whether it is meeting her ghastly friends or coping with the medical scares that accompany her pregnancy. There are verve, panache and real things at stake here.

11 reasons you can't help but like Catastrophe's Sharon

Catastrophe returns for series two and it's easy to get on board with Sharon's particularly honest approach to life.

Rik Mayall's last voiceover to debut in Manchester

The last voiceover work done by Rik Mayall is to receive its premiere in Manchester next month. He narrated six fairytales before his death in June last year, originally as audiobooks. Then writer Mike Bennett made them into children's animations, which will now be screened at the Greater Manchester Fringe.

Bill Bailey's tour bus 'nicked' in Liverpool

Bill Bailey had his "tour bus" stolen before he performed at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

How two late starters made one of 2015's best sitcoms

Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan met on Twitter and conceived their hit comedy Catastrophe thousands of miles apart - can parenthood bring them together?

Adil Ray on the potrayal of Muslims on TV

Adil Ray is back with a fourth series of Citizen Khan - he explains why his BBC sitcom about a Muslim family is still as laugh-out-loud funny, and controversial, as ever.

Meet British Muslim comedian Shazia Mirza

British Muslim comedian Shazia Mirza tells Radhika Sanghani why her latest show focuses on Isil and the Kardashians - and how she's getting more hate mail than ever before.

Radio Times review

The first episode of the 1970s is a jovial knockabout in which the platoon prepares for a parade of all civil defence units. In one of those lovely, evocative scenes in the local cinema, a Gaumont newsreel gives Mainwaring the idea for a regimental mascot. And Pike is piqued by having to leave early ("I haven't seen the Donald Duck yet").

Some ram-chasing antics enable the cast to give little thumbnail sketches of their characters: timid Godfrey, furtive Frazer and mellow Wilson lying back in the buttercups.

There's a nice variation on Jones's catchphrase ("Permission to stop panicking, sir") and some enthusiastic gurning from Bill Pertwee as Hodges. At one point the warden is so thoroughly upstaged that even Mainwaring is forced to laugh, and the Home Guard/ARP rivalry reaches a ludicrously funny conclusion.

Radio Times review

Doc Martin wakes up gagged and handcuffed to a bed. Now clearly being held hostage is not a normal situation, even for a bad-tempered and aggravating man like him, but how he gets there is not really the point. Suffice to say it's related to a patient from last week.

However, his incarceration in a remote farmhouse does give him reason (and time) to think about his personal life before someone finally comes to his aid. Unfortunately the hapless PC Penhale is heading up the rescue team, but it's not long before half the village, including Louisa, arrives.

Martin-ettes will be holding their breath in anticipation of a happy ending.

Radio Times review

Is there any life left in Trollied? After all, when loads of original cast members leave a show, it usually ends up being the kiss of death. Look what happened to ER, New Tricks and - of course - the greatest ensemble drama of all time: Monarch of the Glen.

But despite the fact that the likes of Jane Horrocks and Mark Addy are now long gone, there's still some fun to be had in this series opener, mainly thanks to the introduction of Sarah Parish as the owner of a budget supermarket called Lauda (hmmm, wonder what the inspiration for that could be?), which looks set to be a rival for the mighty Valco.

Radio Times review

One of the many joys of Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney's brilliantly funny and warm-hearted comedy is its fearless embrace of authentic and thorny issues that sometimes threaten our couple's otherwise solid union. So tonight, Horgan's Sharon has to face up to her postnatal depression, an aversion to her fellow mums and her lonely fixation on Sam, the one member of the mother and baby class she actually likes, but who seems rather put off by her neediness.

Delaney's Rob, meanwhile, wants Sharon's new therapist to prescribe more sex with him and is momentarily tempted by a sexy (and very forward) French work colleague, Olivia.

It seems as if the pair are being tested a lot more this series, but fans will always feel safe with Delaney and Horgan around. Probably because their consistently excellent performances and lashings of keen, spiky and cliché-free writing alchemise everything they touch into comedy gold.

Radio Times review

After tonight's thrilling instalment you may be left wondering which of the major protagonists are NOT actually related to each other. And while the web of coincidences could leave you gasping at times, there seems, with 18 days until the comet lands, a more plausible sense of a world facing imminent destruction than hitherto as we witness greater panic and ennui to go with all the abandoned streets, schools and banks.

And despite being introduced to a fabulously deranged Diana Rigg, this is also perhaps the most emotional and moving episode in a very strong series. Pauline Quirke in particular comes into her own as the wonderful Paula, who defends her son Jamie (Mat Baynton) like a cornered tigress.

Radio Times review

The new campaign of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club is causing ructions. Peter the visiting German (Daniel Donskoy) is appealing for the club's help to locate a crashed WW2 plane, but for Lance, it simply isn't history: "If it hasn't been forgotten, I'm not interested." In any case, Lance has other distractions, listening to David Essex while getting spruced up. Smooth!

The joy of Detectorists is precisely the fact that it isn't earth-shattering; rather, a succession of entrancing moments. Becky zoning out - the way people do - during a work meeting. Or Sophie defending her fellow amateur archaeologists when Peter ridicules their peculiarities. "They are weird, so I like them," she says. And more good news: Lance and Andy's rivals, "Simon and Garfunkel", are back.

Radio Times review

Based on this episode, QI will definitely benefit from some of the extra female energy it'll get when Sandi Toksvig takes over. Upon given a question about historical attitudes to the private parts of women, an exasperated Cariad Lloyd is forced to educate her clueless male co-panellists (and host Stephen Fry) in a little anatomy that leaves them all squirming in their chairs like schoolboys.

As she comments, they've never looked more terrified - not even when they earlier learnt about the radioactive secrets that used to lurk inside children's breakfast cereals...

Radio Times review

The stars of Steve Jobs, the Danny Boyle film about the co-founder of Apple that closed the recent London Film Festival, are on Graham's sofa this evening. It's unlikely that we'll see a repeat of Michael Fassbender's wonderfully cool dance to Blurred Lines that he did when he was on the show with his X Men co-stars 18 months ago - unless it happens to be a favourite tune of Kate Winslet's, too. Also on the bill is Brooklyn star Julie Walters - a regular guest on the show because she is always such terrific value - as well as rapper 50 Cent.

Bob Mortimer undergoes triple heart bypass surgery

Comedian Bob Mortimer was recovering in hospital tonght after undergoing a triple heart bypass operation, the Mirror can reveal.

Catastrophe review

Ben Dowell finds that the Channel 4 couple comedy is still on excellent form but suspects that the two lovebirds are being tested a lot more this series.

Was Ed Miliband nearly pranked by Glitchy?

Ed Miliband has revealed that he thinks a TV production company attempted to trick him into appearing on a fictional show.

Jeremy Lloyd died penniless, documents reveal

The successful screenwriter and actor who was once married to Joanna Lumley left a net estate of nil after his outstanding affairs were settled.

Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse: Legends! - review

The comedy duo celebrate 25 years of their partnership with a new 'very funny' performance.

Catastrophe, TV review: the rudest romcom is back

It rejoices in the fingernail-digging anger that surges when your other half takes too long to reach for the door key.

Jody Kamali has learned from mistakes

I met up with character comedy performer Jody Kamali whom - as it turned out - I wrongly thought I had first encountered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012.

Catastrophe, series two, episode one, review

Full of black farce and unflinching observation, the year's best comedy richly deserves its swift second series, says Michael Hogan.

Review: Catastrophe series 2

All in all, it makes for a complex, delicious sweet-and-sour taste that will keep the critical garlands flooding in. And deservedly so, for this is proper grown-up comedy in which the consequences are not only hilarious - but credible, too.

You, Me And The Apocalypse - Episode 4 review

Poor Max -- just as I was beginning to warm to him with his whole 'maybe there is a God, hey maybe we're the chosen ones... perhaps my family could be saved' shtick, he up and dies on me.

Our Catastrophe characters will really suffer this series

Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney reveal whether their real life spouses are jealous of their bond, what Sarah Jessica Parker is really like and plans to make a third series...

Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong on Peep Show

'Hopefully we haven't left them too broken and destroyed'.