Dara O Briain

This topical panel show can always be guaranteed to provide a few belly laughs.

And unlike Have I Got News for You, it doesn't matter if you've been hiding under a rock for the past week and haven't got a clue what's been going on in the world.

The topical bit is used loosely. Instead it's more an excuse for stand-up comedians to show their wares, with Dara O Briain at the helm.

Joining show regulars Hugh Dennis, Andy Parsons and Chris Addison is my own personal favourite stand-up, Micky Flanagan, up-and-coming comic Nathan Caton and Canada's king of the one-liners Stewart Francis (if you love your comedy, you'll recognise him from an episode of Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow - he was the guy who opened with: "Don't worry, I haven't heard of you either").

Considering the show's format, which is just made for killer one-liners, tonight's episode promises to be even funnier than normal.

Video: Dara O'Briain explains why he's going stargazing

Dara O'Briain, explained to BBC Breakfast why he's now going stargazing with the physicist Professor Brian Cox.

Jonathan Ross to co-present Stargazing Live

Jonathan Ross will join Professor Brian Cox and comedian Dara O'Briain on BBC2's three-day astronomy event.

The stand-up show has reached its sixth series and kicks off with some trusty names. Mock the Week regular Sean Lock is the host and dishes out gags about the perils of people wanting to try on your glasses and - that old topic that just about anyone can relate to - having children. He introduces Liverpudlian John Bishop, whose own comedy series was shown on BBC One in the summer. Over the following five episodes we can expect to see Dara O Briain, Lenny Henry, Jon Richardson and Shappi Khorsandi among those taking the stage.

Fry leads protest tweets against Twitter joke verdict

Broadcaster reiterates offer to pay fine handed to man convicted of 'menace' for threatening to blow up an airport in a Twitter joke.

Series nine of the panel show hosted by Dara Ó Briain continues to offer amusing satire on the week's events, although topicality appears to be less important than good jokes if the popularity of the recycled earlier series on digital channel Dave is anything to go by. Ó Briain will be joined as usual by stand-ups Andy Parsons, Russell Howard and bishop's son Hugh Dennis.

With the departure of the notorious and sometimes offensive Frankie Boyle just a distant memory, the satirical panel show - a sort of fusion of Have I Got News for You and Whose Line Is It Anyway? - returns for its ninth series. With much of the show based on the week's news, there's no way of knowing what topics the panellists will be poking fun at, but Dara O Briain is back in the host's chair, presiding over Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard, Andy Parsons et al like a twinkly-eyed, indulgent uncle, while the irrelevant scoring system and weird mix of sit-down/stand-up rounds is intact. The show is undoubtedly a bit softer without Boyle but, along with BBC2's QI, it always manages to deliver intelligent comedy.

I like Charlie Brooker, I like Dara O'Briain and I like Graham Linehan. If those three can't persuade me to take an interest in computer games, nobody can. All three contributed to Gameswipe, a helpful guide to the computer game, with Brooker as host.

Brooker was his usual grumpy, caustic, brilliant self, but the subject matter just left me cold. The show helpfully introduced the uninitiated to the various categories of game available - platform, shoot 'em up, role play, combat - and provided a brief history of each. By far the best bits featured archive clips of anxious teachers, concerned parents and fretful community leaders getting all hot under the collar at the latest screen outrage, of which there have been many over the years.

But even with sumptuously realised and immaculately detailed graphics, the games under review appeared infantile and repetitive. Especially the modern shoot 'em ups, which have somehow contrived to make the act of mass murder appear very dull indeed.

Mock the Nation

Dara O'Briain, a buttery-faced man with a smugly malicious manner, presides over panellists without a political idea in their little heads.

Irish comedian and Mock the Week presenter Dara O'Briain is one of the funniest stand ups around. This hour and a half-long gig at the Hammersmith Apollo marked the end of his 2008 sell-out tour. In it he makes jokes about everything from homeopathy to the home pregnancy test.