BBC urged to ban right-wing comedian Andrew Lawrence

The controversial comic has come under fire after a tweet joking that feminists should 'kill themselves'.

Best comedy of 2015

Praise for Mel Brooks, Sam Simmons, Katherine Ryan, Joseph Morpurgo and Spencer Jones, but Andrew Lawrence was turkey of the year.

I first became aware of comedian Andrew Lawrence last year, when he caused a minor kerfuffle by moaning about '"political" comedians cracking cheap and easy gags about UKIP', the 'ever-creeping militant political correctness of the BBC' and 'women posing as comedians'. I filed the name away under 'tedious try-hard blowhards to be avoided like the plague'.

So, when I saw that he'd been rewarded by the militantly PC BBC with his own Radio 4 sitcom, my instinct was to avoid. However, when told how awful the show was I weakened in disbelief. I wish I'd stuck with my original instinct.

In There Is No Escape (R4, Tuesdays, 6.30pm), Lawrence plays a loser called Andrew who lives with his girlfriend in mutual disdain. The script consists of people being sarcastic to each other in the most charmless way, in a manner that people only do in bad sitcoms. Wise-cracking without any glimmer of wisdom. Diane Morgan (perhaps best known as Weekly Wipe's Philomena Cunk), who plays the girlfriend, deserves far better. Happily there is an escape. It's called the 'off' switch.

Comic attacks 'liberal left' comedy consensus

One of the most controversial comedians at this year's Fringe Festival has condemned "activism cloaked as stand-up" in a broadside against some of Edinburgh's biggest acts. Andrew Lawrence, performing in his tenth consecutive festival having been nominated for Fringe comedy awards in 2006 and 2007, claims the industry is mired in "leftist snobbery" and defended the right of comics to express conservative views.

Andrew Lawrence on 'lefty, preachy demagogues'

Lately I've been doing the odd bit of material that I suppose, if you took it at face value, politically you might call right of centre. In the comedy industry that's bad enough to put me on par with Hitler.

The John Bishop Show - primetime comedy digs deep

If Andrew Lawrence does want to complain again he should be critical of John Bishop, not at any BBC diversity policy, positive discrimination or political correctness gone bonkers.

Edinburgh preview: Phil Wang

Andrew Lawrence has been at it again. This time the controversial comic has been having a pop at the quality of the guests on The John Bishop Show, suggesting that a diversity policy has meant that comedians who aren't necessarily that good are getting edited to look good on television. I don't think that Lawrence named names, but maybe one of the people he was referring to was Phil Wang, who has a Chinese father and an English mother. In which case Lawrence is wrong. Wang doesn't need to be edited to look good because he is good.

Reasons To Kill Yourself, Andrew Lawrence: book review

A blunt, self-harm satire on the psychospeak genre, Andrew Lawrence's literary debut, Reasons To Kill Yourself, is a typically bilious incitement to suicide.

Review: Andrew Lawrence

He's been vilified on social media for being un-PC after an ill-judged Facebook posting. But Andrew Lawrence is really just a misanthropic comedian railing at hypocrisy.