Young people don't own comedy - and nor should they

How dull would our lives be if we, in effect, introduce a mandatory retirement age for wisecracks?

Alexei Sayle webchat - post your questions now

The explosive comedian is joining us to answer your questions in a live webchat on Wednesday 16 March at 1pm GMT - post yours in the comments below.

Thatcher Stole My Trousers, by Alexei Sayle - review

We'll probably never see anything like the alternative comedy revolution again. Even if the artform detours into another cul-de-sac of tired tropes - where you could argue mainstream stand-up has been heading for a while - the particular economic, social and political forces of the post-punk, nascently Thatcherite era are likely to be unique.

Alexei Sayle on Labour

If Jeremy Corbyn is going to reform the party in his own kindly image, my next act is going to have to be about sandwiches.

Thatcher Stole My Trousers by Alexei Sayle review

The second instalment of Alexei Sayle's impressive memoirs takes him from art school to the miners' strike. His background in revolutionary politics and avant-garde theatre proved to be ideal for a new era of stand-up.

Alexei Sayle interview

The 80s stand-up legend on drugs, communist dentists, and the comedy revolution.

News International gets a thorough skewering in this new instalment of the veteran satire series Comic Strip. The peerless Maxine Peake stars as flame-haired red top editor Rebekah Brooks, an "innocent and beguiling northern girl" who rises to the top of the tabloid publishing empire alongside Russell Tovey's Andy Coulson. As ever, it's a star-studded affair, with Stephen Mangan as a 70s Tony Blair and Harry Enfield as Ross Kemp, alongside top turns from Johnny Vegas, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle.

The Red Top preview

It's 75-minutes of pure entertainment and pure escape, and if nothing else, watching Maxine Peake, Russell Tovey, Eleanor Matsuura, Johnny Vegas, Alexei Sayle, Harry Enfield, James Buckley, John Sessions, Stephen Mangan and Peter Richardson share the screen is a real joy.

Sue Perkins for Top Gear, and if not her another comic?

In the last few days I've heard about Count Arthur Strong being mooted as new host of Top Gear and Alexei Sayle being tipped for the job. At the time of writing Sue Perkins is the odds-on bookies favourite, even though she has tweeted that she is not interested.

When almost anyone who's had their 15 minutes dies now, social media is awash with people who have never given the deceased a second thought chiming in that they'll be missed. When Rik Mayall died suddenly in June, thousands tweeted their grief.

"He was a golden youth," says Ben Elton. "He was the greatest of us all," says Alexei Sayle. "The sexy genius, Rik Mayall," says whoever wrote Simon Callow's suitably grandiose narration for this tribute programme, which does the usual run-through of all the late star's famous roles, making out that each was incredibly groundbreaking, while celebrity chums say what a great guy he was.

The thing is, with Rik Mayall, for once all of that is absolutely true. He was a bloody sexy genius. He was unique and I'm quite willing to believe he was brilliant to know. And that grief felt real: to a certain generation, at least, he was ours in a way no other entertainer could be and loved as much as any stranger could be. He never sold out, never became a sentimental, corny shadow of himself.

This tribute programme - obvious as it is, missing (totally understandably) any contributions from his family or Adrian Edmondson, but filled with wonderful early footage and photos - reminds us of just what we lost.

You may cry a wee bit. But you will definitely laugh.