Vicious is cliched and outdated, says Barry Cryer

Veteran comedy writer says show about an ageing gay couple would make John Inman look restrained.

Radio Times review

This is billed as a panel game but it's more of a parlour game - perhaps after a stodgy supper, given the pervading air of lethargy - in which four comedy stars flop out on sofas separated by a bank of TV screens from host Jo Brand.

Team captains Rebecca Front and Barry Cryer are joined by guests Tony Robinson and Hugh Dennis, who divulge a few of their own comedy secrets and answer questions that pop up on screen from the likes of Andrew Sachs, Lesley Joseph and Shaun Williamson. It's mildly amusing, but Jo Brand is always better unscripted.

Learning laughter by Barry Cryer

The status of "TV legend" doesn't quite do it for this writer and performer. Even "national treasure" doesn't cut it. Barry Cryer, now 78, has written for the very best in comedy for as long as anyone cares to remember.

Barry Cryer hits out at witch hunt over celebrities

Comedy legend Barry Cryer has accused the police of carrying out a "witch hunt" against celebrities.

First in a new series in which contemporary stars profile the heroes of their youth. In this opener, Miranda Hart follows in the footsteps of her hero Eric Morecambe, from Morecambe beach to Luton Town and many points in between. Uncovering rarer footage than that found in most other Eric & Ern documentaries, and including interviews with former collaborators Eddie Braben, Barry Cryer and Ann Hamilton, this makes for a commendably off-piste look at the much-loved comic icon.

Miranda Hart on her comedy hero Eric Morecambe

Plus Barry Cryer, Ant and Dec, Victoria Wood, Ben Miller salute a legacy of laughter.

Chuckle muscles at the ready, I prepared to be simultaneously tickled and enlightened by David Mitchell's History of British Comedy.

Sadly, however, it turned out to be an all-too-familiar trawl through the early days of music hall, variety and radio, with precious little of the Mitchell magic we know and love from his prolific radio and TV output.

A catch-all documentary series such as this is only really as good as its clips and contributors, so it was disappointing to find Mitchell, or his producer, rounding up the usual suspects - Michael Grade, Barry Cryer, Ken Dodd and token academic CP Lee, all of whose reflections on comedy have been documented to death over the years.

The country must be crawling with people with a different take on early British comedy and its connection to the comedy of today, as well as people in their 70s, 80s and 90s who saw the likes of Max Miller, Sid Field, Robb Wilton and Jimmy James in their heydays. Where were they?

By far the most vivid and original recollections of early comedy came from 91-year-old Denis Norden, a living encyclopedia of British comedy and variety who merits a documentary series to himself.

The former chief exec of Channel 4 goes in search of the origins of the joke and attempts to discover its earliest example. So he starts in Liverpool with comedy legend Ken Dodd. Trawling history for evidence of what tickled our ancestors, Grade discovers it was basically the same mother-in-law gags and references to anal wind we all love so much now. Interesting contributions come from Tim Vine and the ever-sharp Barry Cryer. Seriously, he must sleep in an amber cave.

A jape, a jest, a gag, even a jewel or trinket in Old English. There are many ways to describe a joke, but pinning down why a joke works is about as easy as nailing jelly to the wall.

Here the jovial Michael Grade does a pretty good job of getting that jelly on the wall - with the help of esteemed gagmeisters Ken Dodd, Barry Cryer and Tim Vine.

His scholastic peregrinations in search of the world's oldest known joke prove we've always laughed at the same things - except we're not so fond of lettuce and herniated eunuch gags nowadays - while the scholarly analysis is tempered by a barrage of one-liners.

What makes the best joke?

"The joke is therapy, a momentary escape from the hundrum of life or, in some cases, the sheer misery or even horror of it," says Barry Cryer.