Radio Times review

The team returns for a festive edition of the classic impressions show, this time putting a yuletide spin on some very unseasonal programmes. Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey and company send up a cosy, snow-sprinkled special of Crimewatch, while also taking a look at some snowman-shaped abnormalities in Embarrassing Bodies. This Christmas, no one will be spared.

Gina McKee, Jan Ravens and Phil Nice join Hebburn cast

Gina McKee, Jan Ravens and Phil Nice have been lined up to star alongside Jim Moir, Chris Ramsey and Kimberley Nixon in new six-part BBC Two comedy series, Hebburn.

Keen to enjoy some legit giggling, I tuned into Craig Brown's Lost Diaries. Brown's Private Eye diaries make me laugh more than anything else in print. But they seem not to work on radio, in spite of the brilliant impressionists (Alistair McGowan, Jan Ravens) who perform them. Perhaps it's that topicality has been lost; Edwina Currie and John Major appeared and, for a moment, I struggled to remember that they once had - oh my God! - an affair.

Then again, any programme that does not take Harold Pinter's egregious "poetry" (or his widow Antonia Fraser's extreme reverence for it) seriously is performing an important service.

The best resurrection of the undead came in Craig Brown's Lost Diaries, which assembled a formidable clutch of impressionist talent, including Rory Bremner, Alistair McGowan and Jan Ravens, to deliver gobbets of satire on figures who may have vanished from public life, but burn brightly in collective memory. There was Edwina Currie's diary on her trysts with John Major: "'Essentially,' he coos, 'these proposals for renewing the essential health of our domestic economy are the same as those I previously mentioned.' 'Go on!' I beg him." There is John Prescott, whose malapropisms and bulimia are a gift, and Antonia Fraser on Harold Pinter's poem about Humpty Dumpty as a denunciation of the Bush regime. "Serves you bloody right for being an egg, chum!" Antonia records that, "Both mummy and daddy had their eyes closed in immense concentration." Bliss.

Expect an arched eyebrow and plenty of sardonic quips as Sandi Toksvig reprises her role as literary quizmaster. Filmed at the Hay festival, this tongue-in-cheek series invites the likes of Rick Wakeman, Jan Ravens, John O'Farrell and Frank Skinner to test their know-how: whereupon Toksvig will separate the truly bookish from the blusterers. Also parading their Eng. Lit. credentials will be returning team captains Sue Perkins and Chris Addison.

Jan Ravens: making a lasting impression

The female impressionist has spent a long career lampooning the powerful and famous on radio and TV, and now, at 50, she's taking to the stage in a solo show.

Bell tolls for Dead Ringers

The BBC has called time on long-running radio and TV impressions show Dead Ringers. The corporation confirmed today that the show, which starred comedians such as Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens and Phil Cornwell, would not be returning.

Bell tolls for Dead Ringers

The BBC has called time on long-running radio and TV impressions show Dead Ringers. The corporation confirmed today that the show, which starred comedians such as Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens and Phil Cornwell, would not be returning.