In 2008, controversy magnet-cum-comedian Russell Brand quit the BBC in shame over "Manuelgate". Now his rehabilitation at the Corporation is complete. Last month, he sat on the Question Time panel alongside that other womanising wag, Boris Johnson. Today Brand appeared on another Beeb institution, Desert Island Discs (Radio 4).

Prompted by the gently probing Kirsty Young, Brand reflected on that notorious 2008 prank phone call to actor Andrew Sachs. He talked of "nearly breaking" his beloved BBC but described the storm as a "dishonest scandal" created by "privately owned media with a pre-existing agenda to attack the BBC". Five years on, he still seemed slightly confused: contrite yet defiant, taking the blame yet deflecting it elsewhere.

Young mentioned her castaway's "beguilingly florid turn of phrase" in her introduction and Brand duly delivered, describing his father as a "sporadically present peripatetic figure" and himself as a "shamanic libido lizard". He confessed to being tired, which rendered him calm, thoughtful and less manic than his stand-up persona.

Brand talked frankly and movingly about his childhood loneliness and mother's cancer. He paid tribute to his mother and grandmother, admitting that they'd "come between me and the grave on many occasions" and said he wants children "to a point that's almost unseemly in a man".

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Stand-up Susan Calman is mostly noted for her appearances on The News Quiz. However this new late-night show, Susan Calman is Convicted, gives the Scottish comic her own platform to get on her soap box.

In the first episode, Calman looks at civil partnerships and gay marriage. Calman is gay herself and in a civil partnership, not that she calls it that as she constantly refers to herself as being married. She talks about her sexuality, how she wants to be able to get married, and the problems she had with her own civil partnership, which included the fact that marriage couldn't be mentioned during the entire ceremony for legal reasons. Come to think of it, this opening episode couldn't have been better timed for Calman, following the vote on legalising gay marriage being passed in the House of Commons.

But concentrating on the show itself, there's a lot of it I liked, most of which wasn't really concerned with the theme. There were all sorts of odd tangents, like when she talks about her love for her three cats, which includes dressing them up and giving each of them their own jingle.

The problem programmes like this and Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation (which starts its ninth series at the end of the month) is that there's a danger of them getting too preachy. It's true that these kinds of shows won't be for people whose politics are right-wing, but in my experience right-wing people tend to be more "laughed at" than "laughed with", which is why there's never been a right-wing equivalent of Mark Thomas. The problem's that people think that those who are "laughed at" are electable (see Boris Johnson).

If you don't mind the preachy nature of these kinds of programmes, however, you'll get a lot of enjoyment from a performer like Calman.

Radio Times review

Sky's Little Crackers are something to look forward to each Christmas, and this series of shorts, all supposedly set in the same part of south London, has a similar feel. First, Charles Dance plays Floyd, an ageing rocker living with his uptight daughter. From a promising beginning - Floyd describing the death of Mama Cass to a class of primary school-children - it descends into cliché. Much better is Jessica Hynes's offbeat tale of quirky Tory councillor Patricia David. With a shock of wild, blonde hair, Hynes is virtually unrecognisable - though you may detect a touch of Boris Johnson about her portrayal.

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Now in its 43rd series, amazingly, little has changed since Have I Got News For You was forced to ditch scandal-hit Angus Deayton as host for the successful but problematic "guest host" format. The thinking is that HIGNFY is kept fresh by having different celebs hosting the show every week, Saturday Night Live-style, and that's true to an extent-but it also means you have boring "safe pair of hands" episodes (here Stephen Mangan, usually Alexander Armstrong) more than the truly memorable hosts (like Boris Johnson or Bruce Forsyth). It also irritates me that the show still keeps in the "mistakes" a guest hosts make during the live recording, as if it's still a novelty having a "non-professional" sitting in the hot-seat and a fluffing a line or two. Isn't this the accepted format of the show now? Why are the still showing us what amounts to bloopers in the show itself?

HIGNFY is still incredibly popular and remains an entertaining watch, but I find myself wishing it would be overhauled. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton have been team captains for so long their shtick is fairly predictable, especially in the latter's case with his surreal meanderings. But more worrying than that, if we're honest HIGNFY is a much less perceptive satirical show than its reputation has us believe. If you note the type of jokes that are made off-the-cuff, or the writers have scripted for the guest host to read off the autocue, the majority of them are silly jibes about a particular famous person's public persona or physical looks. (Politician Eric Pickles is a particular target these days, just because he's fat. I guess Pickles is John Prescott's replacement because they've had the ex-Deputy PM on the show and now we know he's actually a straight-thinking and amusing man.)

Obviously not every joke can be a vividly perceptive gem that tackles the hot issues of the day in a fresh way, but I get the feeling that HIGNFY has less and less to say of real merit these days. It's like everyone who appears on it just follows the pattern they've seen play out hundreds of times, afraid or just unable to take the show down a different path. Why not alter some of the rounds, ditch some of the weaker ones, or bring in a few new ideas? For instance, why is there still a "guest publication" in the Missing Words round? Wasn't that a one-series joke that never got retired? Its weekly inclusion just removes the opportunity for a politically-based joke when the missing word has something to do with a niche topic like raisins instead of something topical and of public interest.

It just feels like HIGNFY could do with a facelift, because it's been around for so long that viewers find it comforting (some people have never known a world without HIGNFY, remember!), and treat it with a reverence it perhaps doesn't deserve anymore. It probably helps that there's no admirable challenger out there, with Channel 4's disappointing 10 O'Clock Live and Adrian Chiles' That Sunday Night Show its closest competitors. In comparison to both, HIGNFY remains genius.

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