Do I detect a slightly more relaxed and free-handed atmosphere now Frankie Boyle's not around to dominate proceedings? Mock The Week still can't match 8 Out Of 10 Cats' jovial atmosphere, but it's certainly getting there. The guests all got a chance to shine, which was the main thing. Chris Addison (best known for his role in political satire The Thick Of It, but also a stand-up comedian) got a few big laughs (mainly with his suggestion that we counter a tidal wave created by the Chinese jumping simultaneously with a similar wave borne of the UK's obese children), and stand-up comedians Sarah Millican and John Bishop both made enough of an impression to prevent total domination by the regulars.

But I'm still disappointed MTW even has so many "regulars" - because what's wrong with the traditional two team captains format? It just feel unbalanced and, frankly, I've grown tired of Hugh Dennis and Andy Parsons' shtick. And it still irritates me when the stand-up round features topics designed to give the guests the opportunity to reuse their stand-up routines (I mean, "Language"? The broadness of "Politics"?), but otherwise this was a fun episode - if still something you'll have forgotten about by ten o'clock.

Frankie Boyle's been lanced, Russell Howard's wearing specs, but it's otherwise business as usual for satirical news quiz Mock The Week; a fusion of Have I Got News For You? and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, with irrelevant scoring and a weird mix of rounds that go from sitdown quiz to stand-up performances. It's all a mere conduit for ribpoking of the week's news stories, and MTW is perhaps more consistent than its contemporaries because four of the pannelists are regulars.

The downside of that consistency is that Hugh Dennis stopped being funny in the mid-'90s and Andy Parsons has never been funny, leaving host Dara O'Briain and Russell Howard to shoulder most of the comic burden. And, like a great many modern panel shows, a lot of guests just become glorified audience members, desperate to shoehorn in paraphrased segments of their standup material. This week, Mark Watson coped well as a guest (he's a veteran of this format), Patrick Kielty had the confidence to soldier through any difficulties he encountered, and while Milton Jones sometimes struggled to recycle his material appropriately, he at least didn't just sit back and do nothing. It helps that his stage persona is a spaced-out weirdo, so his weaker moments and slipups could be forgiven as part of his "act".

Alas, we'll miss the dark humour of Frankie Boyle, who recently announced his departure from the programme, but this new series of the comedy panel show retains wit aplenty in the form of Dara O'Briain, Russell Howard, Andy Parsons and Hugh Dennis.

Dara O'Briain presents a festive edition of the comedy panel show. The series's regulars - Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard, Andy Parsons and Frankie Boyle - offer their reflections on Christmas and review highlights from the series. There are also contributions from other nimble-witted comedians, including Fred Macaulay, Holly Walsh, Milton Jones and David Mitchell.

What more could you want from a panel show than the brilliant Frankie Boyle and Andy Parsons? Well, probably just one more thing - the sharp and sure David Mitchell, always a hoot on these sorts of things. His fellow guest is the likeably down-to-earth Sarah Millican.

See how Gordon Brown's mouth falls down after he speaks? See how Dawn French is fat? See how Scottish people are smack heads? What about some celebrities? Don't they get DRUNK? See children? Aren't they sexy? See cricket? Isn't it boring? See stand-ups? When they guest on Mock The Week, don't they get to choose a round that allows them to recite a big chunk of their stand-up routine?

Mock The Week grows ever more popular, being the sole mainstream comedy satire show not peopled by authority figures and old favourites whose laughs grow more grating by the week. It is The Frankie Boyle Show, of course. While the others flail around him fighting, often pointedly, for applause, he can deliver the audience into a paroxysm of frenzied self-congratulation merely by suggesting that John Prescott is fat/Gordon Brown has one eye/David Cameron is posh.

Of course, the comedians (Boyle in particular) are capable of wit. But that's not the main outcome of the show. It's not about laughs. It's a show about concision, speed and nastiness. Get a clear run on the mic before anyone else and suggest that MTW stands for Mediocre Television Spamfilter and you'd get a laugh just for having replaced an initial with a rude word.

The most telling point is the guest comedians. Whether total rubbish (Gina Yashere) average (Jon Richardson) or brilliant (Stewart Lee, who described his own appearance thus: 'I must have looked like a competition winner, who'd won a prize to sit silent on an unfunny topical quiz show') they never make any impact. They're always less important than Andy Parsons. Think about how that must feel.

The funniest thing that's ever resulted from this show is definitely Newsnight having to repeat Frankie Boyle's joke about the queen. The repetition is absolutely hilarious. She's shouting at him by the end, and he's her boss. Anyway, this week will see Frankie Boyle try to make the sickest joke about Jacko, Hugh Dennis doing a rubbish impression, Russel Howard letting himself down by gooning and Andy Parsons delivering lines in a really irritating "de-de-DEE, de-de-dur" fashion. Of the guests, Frank Skinner will be laconic and Gina 'Did I mention that my parents are Nigerian?' Yashere will be practically edited out. Really, it's not awful.

Other than the editor and owners of The Daily Telegraph, the only folk actively praying for the expenses ballyhoo to continue are Dara O'Briain, Russell Howard, Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis and that bloke who looks like Matt Lucas' character out of Krod Mandoon (Andy Parsons). Let's hope they make the most of it as guests Frank Skinner and Gina Yashere join the teams.

Delighted to say that Mock the Week is back on Thursday!

For newcomers - it's a sort of Have I Got News For You mixed with Whose Line Is It Anyway?, recorded in front of a studio audience the same day, and features the crushingly funny Frankie Boyle and Andy Parsons along with various others, including regular captain Hugh Dennis.

The advent of 24-hour drinking may have largely deprived this sort of comedy of its natural constituency - the punter who consumes his bodyweight in Last Orders beer and then staggers off in search of radio-based hilarity - but that doesn't stop the Beeb from commissioning it.

Frankly, if you're sober none of it makes much sense, but it appears that the Scrooby of the title (played by the writer of the series, Andy Parsons) has gone missing but has left a series of recordings on his MP3 player, each describing his experience of various lifestyles, some of them alternative and some not.

The impressive list of guest stars includes Dara O'Briain, Frankie Boyle, Marcus Brigstocke and Lucy Porter, proof - if nothing else - that Parsons has some good friends on the stand-up circuit. There's also an interactive element that involves contacting a website and suggesting other enterprises for him to 'investigate'.