Comedians re-create childhood photos

Take a dozen comedians, add some snaps from the family album, mix them all up and what do you get? Featuring Alan Carr, Miranda Hart, Greg Davies, Jessica Hynes, Sarah Millican, Dom Joly, Jason Byrne, Shappi Khorsandi, Chris Addison, Jimmy Carr, Russell Howard and Jon Holmes.

Spin doctor Malcolm Tucker is back in a blizzard of vituperation as Gold repeats series three of Armando Iannucci's peerless political satire. Tucker is doling out his "verbal colonics" to a new Secretary of State (splendid Rebecca Front, in a role that won her a Bafta). The inventive expletives bounce off the walls in firework displays of pure filth and bad taste. The dexterousness of the insults remains a marvel, as does the sublime supporting cast - Chris Addison and James Smith - of useless apparatchiks.

The Thick Of It's Chris Addison and Mel and Sue's Mel Giedroyc join Dave Gorman tonight in judging his audience's often superb ideas to improve modern life. Suggestions in this episode include a hand-shaking machine, the prototype of which is quite impressive, an ingenious idea to liven up Olympic coverage and a de-wedging device for buttocks prone to munching cloth. Anything that brings the spirit of Heath Robinson to television is a good thing.

Perfectly timed to ward off those back-to-school blues, the ever-popular topical panel show returns after a summer holiday. Tonight's guests are Thick of It star Chris Addison, Andi Osho - both fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe - and Milton Jones, who does a fine line in ludicrous puns. Unlikely to let them get a gag in edgeways are regulars Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard and Andy Parsons, while host Dara O'Briain dishes out points. Expect an impudent digest of the week's news, arbitrary scores and puerile one-liners aplenty.

Comedy doesn't get much tougher than this! Yes, I pinched a line from Gregg MasterChef Wallace there, but it is apt. Nowhere makes or breaks comedians like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Stephen K Amos trawls the bars and gutters to talk to the comics, the punters, and the promoters to find out why they come every summer to Auld Reekie. These are cut into the highlights from a two-hour live show of stand-up and music from the Royal Mile, including a twisted version of Just a Minute with Amos, Angelos from Shooting Stars, Chris Addison, and Scott Mills.

Interview: Chris Addison, comedian (Link expired)

If you bought tickets at the Gilded Balloon box office in 1994, you might well have been served by a lanky, curly haired, fresh-faced lad with partially formed dreams of a career on the stage. These are the kind of fairytales made at the Fringe.

Chris Addison gets into the thick of it

As voters queue in front of polling stations on May 6, Chris Addison will be taking a break from his nationwide stand-up tour to concentrate on politics.

SFTW meets - Chris Addison

Chris Addison stars in BBC TV comedy The Thick Of It so he is used to being recognised.

7 Day Sunday, hosted by self-confessed sports ignoramus Chris Addison, provides a humorous look at the week's news. Watch out for regular panellist Sarah Millican - a really good female comedian. We should expect to see a lot more of her. If you listen to it as a podcast there's extra material as an added treat.

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.