David Mitchell (I)

David Mitchell's top 10 comedy YouTube clips

This week is YouTube Comedy Week. David Mitchell has made this top list of his favourite 'unseen funny' YouTube vids.

Richard Herring's favourite podcast guests

Ahead of his new podcast series, we talked to Richard Herring about his favourite guests from previous episodes.

Beginning another series of amiable panel-game mendacity. Should you not have caught any of the previous six series, this is a show in which Rob Brydon presides over two teams as they attempt to wrongfoot each other with claims made by their members. An "if it ain't broke" format, even down to the guests: David Mitchell and Lee Mack captain the teams, with return appearances this week from comedians Dara O'Briain and Rhod Gilbert, and newcomer celebs Denise van Outen and Vernon Kay.

Returning to assume his hosting position for an eye-watering seventh series, Rob Brydon stirs the comedy panel-show action with his familiar scurrilous cheek. David Mitchell and Lee Mack are back in harness as team captains, and tonight's porky-spinning guest line-up includes Rhod Gilbert, Vernon Kay, Dara O'Briain and Denise Van Outen. Who will turn out to be the most credible fibbers/most gullible listeners when it comes to telling tales - tall or true - about their own lives?

The funniest and most likeable panel game on television returns to brighten Friday nights, with Lee Mack and David Mitchell renewing their class-divided clash of wits.

As Mitchell has pointed out, the running rivalry trades on images of each other - as the unworldly toff and the philistine oik - that have precious little to do with reality, but hey, who cares when they deliver the laughs? The other panellists, Rob Brydon as host, even the format of the show, are all only biding time until Mack and Mitchell can start pitching derisive darts at one another.

But lest we forget, the gist of the show is celebs telling implausible - yet often true - stories about themselves and submitting to mocking cross-examination, before opponents try to guess if they're bluffing.

For added enjoyment, play along at home and pause before the reveal to take bets. It's not easy.

This, believe it or not, is the seventh series of Would I Lie to You?. A hardy perennial then, which seems to suggest that casting, not format is the most important factor in the success of a panel show. The competitive comic chemistry between posh pedant David Mitchell and ruthlessly efficient robo-quipper Lee Mack sustains the show, and Rob Brydon is a likeable host too.

A few of the rougher edges have been smoothed out over the years - WILTY? occupies a pre-watershed slot these days, so we can probably forget about any more appearances from Frankie Boyle or Jimmy Carr. But it remains really watchable Friday evening fare.

It's been scientifically proven that it's impossible to watch this without feeling at least 42% happier than before it started. True or false? Who cares.

What is absolutely true is that this is the seventh series of the rib-tickling Friday night favourite where team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack do such sterling work each week to keep the old North-South rivalry stoked up.

Rob Brydon will be in the presenter's chair once again and fibbing for all they're worth tonight (or are they?) will be comedian and occasional maths guru Dara O Briain, Rhod Gilbert, Vernon Kay - who claims that he once nearly caused a gas explosion while in a banana packing factory - and Denise van Outen, who has a confession to make about her bottom for viewers tonight. You can feel David Mitchell blushing behind his beard already.

It's a good job this goes out before the watershed, or things could get out of hand.

A gaggle of familiar faces jostle for screen space as the topical news satire returns to take a pop at the week's headlines. While it's never quite matched the casual wit of Have I Got News For You or the US chutzpah of The Daily Show, there's always the chance one of the TV regulars - including Screenwipe's Charlie Brooker, Peep Show's David Mitchell and music pundit Lauren Laverne - will hit a funny bone when you're least expecting it.

The comic current affairs show returns with David Mitchell, Charlie Brooker, Lauren Laverne and Jimmy Carr sinking satirical claws into the week. Late-night political satire is a fixture of US television and if they got it right here, it could be a buzzy alternative to Question Time. So far 10 O'Clock Live has only shown flashes of that, but Mitchell is a better interviewer than you'd expect and his longer pieces, along with Brooker's Screenwipe-ish rants, mean the show is always good in parts.

David Mitchell interview

A short Q&A with 10 O'Clock Live star David Mitchell about his TV watching habits.