Review: Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask

The format is essentially Alexander Armstrong presents a topic to a panel of three comedians and the panel must take it in turn to ask interesting questions to the other two panellists. Got it? To be honest Katy Brand, Griff Rhys Jones and Robert Webb didn't really get it either at first.

Quiz show producers looking to make cuts: why not do away with researchers altogether? Alexander Armstrong invites Robert Webb, Katy Brand and Griff Rhys Jones to not only answer some QI-style questions, but to come up with their own questions too. As Webb, grabbing the hand that feeds and munching it like a corncob, says: "We all know where we are. This channel isn't called David." If the pilot doesn't grab your attention, the tossed-together studio set might: a derangement of union flag coffee table and skyline glimpsed through American chatshow blinds.

Hosting knockabout comedy quizzes is a useful sideline for Alexander Armstrong. But despite being the most comfortable host of Have I Got News for You, he doesn't always strike gold (Best of the Worst, Don't Call Me Stupid). Maybe this quiz pilot will change his fortunes. Contestants (Robert Webb, Katy Brand and Griff Rhys Jones) gain points for devising a question that will flummox the others, while Dave (Come Dine with Me) Lamb chips in from the "Fact Bunker". It's more Reithian than the average panel show, but the best bits are the detours: Webb goading Armstrong with "I like it when you do your One Show voice", and Jones looking peeved with a low score for one of his jokes.

Who doesn't like Alexander Armstrong? The suave comedian is one of the best guest hosts to have sat in the Have I Got News For You hot seat, and his daytime quiz show Pointless is an underrated treat. This week, Mr. Armstrong (or 'Xander' to his friends) takes the helm of new panel show Big Ask, in which contestants gain points for devising a question that baffles their opponents. It's always nice to see Dave branching out into original comedy, so we're willing to give this one a go.

After two series spent looking oddly out of place on Thursday nights, the topical quiz returns to its rightful Friday-night home. Jack Dee is the guest host (for the 11th time; only Alexander Armstrong has been asked back more often). The panellists are Caroline Wyatt, the BBC News defence correspondent, and comedian Jon Richardson, joining old-timers Paul Merton and Ian Hislop.

Video: Ben Miller interview

Comedian Ben Miller joined BBC Breakfast to discuss his new documentary and admits that, if it wasn't for Alexander Armstrong, he could have followed a career in quantum physics and Armstrong could have been an opera singer!

It's nice that one of Alexander Armstrong's minor characters, waffling royal correspondent Terry Devlin, has come into his own. Prince William's engagement has resulted in plenty of "royal watchers" filling airtime by blethering away while imparting zero information. None is as hopeless as Devlin, but it's a close thing. And this week, wouldn't you know, he has an actual wedding to cover. Elsewhere there are more hits than misses: the vampires visit a clothes shop to update their wardrobe; there's another one-take wonder from Dennis Lincoln-Park; and stay to the end for a nice flight of fancy imagining the creative process behind a classic piece of wartime propaganda.

Q&A: Alexander Armstrong

'I have a horrible capacity to be unctuous with people I want to impress'

The trouble with sketch shows is that, as they average perhaps 30 gags per episode, they need an almost impossibly large supply of comic energy to keep them from slipping into the doldrums. Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong are talented, and they do just about keep this show afloat - look out in tonight's episode for a wonderfully handled running joke about a retired pirate now living in suburbia - but it's a long way from the consistent brilliance of Monty Python's Flying Circus or the early days of The Fast Show.

Video: Armstrong & Miller on BBC Breakfast

Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller tell BBC Breakfast where they get the inspiration from for their comedy characters and justify a sketch on their show that makes fun of Breakfast TV.