Adam Buxton and Ross Kemp become Bad Robots

The comedian and the formers EastEnders hardman join Felicity Montagu, Matt Le Tisser and Sir Michael Gambon as the voices of the pesky automatons.

This enduring Radio 4 show is one of those excellent ideas that seems glaringly obvious once someone else has thought of it. The basic concept is a hostless chat show; an initial guest chooses a sparring partner who, the following week, chooses another, and so it goes on in a cheerful human centipede of chat. This series began with Adam Buxton talking to Reece Shearsmith and has passed through a range of comedy luminaries, including Vic Reeves and Sharon Horgan.

Comedian Adam Buxton has presented a bi-monthly showcase of music videos on the big screen at BFI Southbank for eight years. In a specially-commissioned series, Buxton brings his commentary to a streaming format.

The driverless car of chat shows, Chain Reaction (BBC Radio 4), returned this week with Adam Buxton firing questions at The League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith. The tag-team format allows for a nice variation in tone (the host baton passes to Shearsmith next week, with a new guest in the other chair), but when the host is as thoughtful and considered as Buxton I almost wish it was his show alone. He's the ideal blend of gentle irreverence and a genuine interest in other people. For all the novelty of the format, it was a good, old-fashioned interview, with Shearsmith offering up everything from impersonations of his old acting teacher and revelations about his childhood (he was nearly christened John Wayne) to the intriguing story of the time he became the apprentice to special-effects artist Christopher Tucker, only to run away from his house in the middle of the night "like Jonathan Harker fleeing Castle Dracula". In a brilliant summation of his comedy oeuvre, including The League of Gentlemen, Psychoville and Inside No. 9, he describes the template as: "Three people in a room. One of them goes mad." Chain Reaction is such an obvious candidate for translation to television that it's puzzling it has yet to make the jump.

Radio Times review

Reece Shearsmith looks rather dour as he explains to his interviewer, Adam Buxton, that his looks have helped cast him as the villain/psychopath/character-most-likely-to-run-amok in the sketches of The League of Gentlemen. Is he angry in real life asks Buxton? Not really, he says. If anything, he thinks he has gone soft in his middling years.

He confesses to looking back at a sketch where a vulnerable character is bullied by teenage girls and thinking that he'd crossed the line, that the cruelty had outweighed the laughs. Push him a little harder though and he is soon chuckling over the Sardines episode of last year's Inside No. 9, which he co-wrote with fellow Gentleman, Steve Pemberton. Inspired by a cupboard in the office they share it involves 12 bodies squashed together -- and some child abuse. It does not sound funny but, as Shearsmith points out, it's the dark drama that has made his comedy so different.

Next week he gets to be the interviewer and Bob Mortimer answers the questions.

Adam Buxton's BUG available to stream on BFI Player

A new series of Adam Buxton's BUG[/C] is available to stream on BFI Player. The show, which sees the comedian share his thoughts about a selection of music videos, has been commissioned in a new format for the online video player.

Radio Times review

Spend a magical Christmas with a jolly bearded man. In a shed. Comedian and multimediagician Adam Buxton brings his distinctive mix of songs, animation and internet flotsam to this festive special. If you have never heard his hilarious take on bug-eyed YouTube commenters then you're in for a treat, but even longtime Adam & Joe fans should find something new.

In the best tradition of telly Christmas specials Adam is joined by some old friends, including poet Tim Key and Buxton's five-year-old daughter Hope. There'll be music and laughter and a hefty dose of nostalgia provided by...well, us, as Adam flicks through old copies of Radio Times. It'll be the best Christmas you've ever spent in a shed.

Adam Buxton's favourite TV

The presenter and comedian on his love of I'm A Celebrity and why watching Gogglebox makes him weepy.

Radio Times review

At last, Buzzcocks has a permanent host. For too long we've been adrift on a choppy sea of guest hosts where for every swell like Terry Wogan or Adam Buxton who could make the show their own, there have been troughs of forgettable faces.

One of the more memorable is voluble Welsh comic Rhod Gilbert, who finally takes on the mantle of hosting duties left by Mark Lamarr and Simon Amstell. He's not as acerbic or waspish as either of those two, so expect more surreal anarchy than vicious putdowns. Guests Professor Green, Roisin Conaty, Gabby Logan and the 1975's Matt Healy will do their best to keep up.