Comic hits out at BBC producers

Mock The Week star Frankie Boyle has hit out at the programme's producers for asking panellists to avoid discussing serious issues.

Frankie Boyle: Fierce, fearless... and funny

The foul-mouthed Glaswegian comedian is in trouble with the BBC over his joke about the swimmer Rebecca Adlington. Does he care? The Independent meets Frankie Boyle.

Good to see Russell Howard, the agreeably warm foil to Frankie Boyle's savage humour on Mock The Week and an excellent stand-up in his own right, has earned his own show. As with Mock The Week, he'll be riffing off the week's news - and since he's a Bright Young Thing, they'll be accompanying blogs and tweets and whatever else.

As much as it does good business filling its schedules with Top Gear repeats and faintly laddish comedy, Dave hasn't quite been able to resist trying its hand at original programming. Argumental - now returning for a third series - was one of the first fruits of that idea. Hosted by the continually charming John Sergeant, who grins his way through a script that seems slightly too crude for him, the show asks you to enjoy the spectacle of third-string TV comics notionally debating contentious propositions, but ultimately reeling off hastily assembled routines. Marcus Brigstocke and Rufus Hound captain teams featuring Frankie Boyle and Andrew Maxwell.

Frankie Boyle leaves 'Mock The Week'

Frankie Boyle has left Mock The Week to concentrate on other TV commitments, while the show has been signed up for two new series by BBC Two.

Frankie Boyle: mocks the weak

When asked on one episode of Mock The Week to suggest a line unlikely to appear in a superhero movie, Boyle responded: "Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Whatever it is, it's heading straight for the World Trade Center." A joke where surely half the audience easily guessed the tired punchline.

Joke ace Frankie taken to hospital

Comic Frankie Boyle has been forced to pull out of this week's Mock The Week show after being carted off to hospital with a mystery illness.

What more could you want from a panel show than the brilliant Frankie Boyle and Andy Parsons? Well, probably just one more thing - the sharp and sure David Mitchell, always a hoot on these sorts of things. His fellow guest is the likeably down-to-earth Sarah Millican.

The funniest thing that's ever resulted from this show is definitely Newsnight having to repeat Frankie Boyle's joke about the queen. The repetition is absolutely hilarious. She's shouting at him by the end, and he's her boss. Anyway, this week will see Frankie Boyle try to make the sickest joke about Jacko, Hugh Dennis doing a rubbish impression, Russel Howard letting himself down by gooning and Andy Parsons delivering lines in a really irritating "de-de-DEE, de-de-dur" fashion. Of the guests, Frank Skinner will be laconic and Gina 'Did I mention that my parents are Nigerian?' Yashere will be practically edited out. Really, it's not awful.

Other than the editor and owners of The Daily Telegraph, the only folk actively praying for the expenses ballyhoo to continue are Dara O'Briain, Russell Howard, Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis and that bloke who looks like Matt Lucas' character out of Krod Mandoon (Andy Parsons). Let's hope they make the most of it as guests Frank Skinner and Gina Yashere join the teams.