Character Invasion: Radio 4 comedy at its worst

It was Radio 4 comedy at its worst: somehow there was always the whiff of Jeremy Hardy in the background, hooting at his own jokes.

5 things you might not know about the ISIHAC crew

Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Jeremy Hardy and Jack Dee are taking the beloved radio show on the road. Here's some facts about them.

Interview: Jeremy Hardy

Darling of BBC Radio 4, unashamedly left-wing, and celebrated off-key singer, Jeremy Hardy is back on the road. Victoria Nangle talks to the comic about The News Quiz, David Cameron and podcasts.

The News Quiz (Radio 4, 6.30pm) returns. I know there are people who will leap with joy at this news. Once I would have been among them. No longer. Even though producer Sam Bryant has brought back journalists (tonight Daniel Finkelstein of The Times) to pit wits against comedians Roisin Conaty, Phill Jupitus and Jeremy Hardy, the programme has grown so much coarser with the years that even Sandi Toksvig seems challenged when trying to enliven the murky script.

Jeremy Hardy doesn't make a lovely programme. Oh no. He makes a comedy show that is so rabidly leftwing that Caroline Raphael, Radio 4's comedy commissioning editor, has to go on Feedback and confess that she finds it hard to locate comics of a Tory persuasion. Don't worry, Caroline! That's because there are no funny Conservatives. Only PJ O'Rourke can do rightwing humour and he's an iconoclast.

Anyway, cuddle your enemies and all that. Hardy knows who and what he's up against, and so do we. He sticks to his shtick, but gently pushes sideways: on Wednesday's programme he moved from whether it's right to compliment a woman on her haircut to checking out other blokes' trainers to going to the gym, where, he observed, there is always a man in his 70s, naked, talc-ing his privates. Not very political with a capital P. Funny, though, and that's what matters.

The main Radio 4 comedy celebrating Christmas was I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, broadcast as a 45-minute long extended edition. Stephen Fry was the guest, alongside host Jack Dee, panellists Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, and pianist Colin Sell - although sadly no Samantha (Sven took the place as scorer).

In the special there was the usual selection of rounds, from "Mornington Crescent" to "Sound Charades", and "Nativity Radio Times" to "One Song to the Tune of Another", which allows the listeners to hear Fry's version of Goodness Gracious Me to the tune of The First Noel, a sound which makes you wonder who would win a singing contest between Fry and Jeremy Hardy...

One of my main complaints about the BBC's comedy programming in 2012 was the lack of coverage it gave to the ISIHAC's 40th anniversary. This show was almost the only marker of the celebration, whereas the 45th anniversary of Just a Minute was given extensive coverage, including a TV adaptation (the third in its history) and episodes recorded in India.

JAM's a great comedy too, of course, but I do think that ISIHAC is the better of the two. And if the BBC aren't going to honour it then hopefully I can here. Here's to another 40 years of funnies - maybe...

Radio weekly #19

This Christmas Ian Wolf listened to Jeremy Hardy's greatest musical rival and a silly Billy...

Jeremy Hardy interview

Jeremy Hardy speaks to the nation at a theatre near you very soon. That's right, one of Britain's most popular comedians is hitting the road.

5 things you might not know about Jeremy Hardy

The Perrier award winner is antagonistic towards the far right.

The News Quiz] (Radio 4, Friday) returned for a 75th series last week, its host Sandi Toksvig and contestants Dominic Lawson, Jeremy Hardy, Andy Hamilton and Fred MacAulay keen to get at what must be one of the richest current affairs harvests in living memory. As ever, Hamilton had the best lines, noting that the name of Libyan diplomat Moussa Koussa "sounds like an ABBA track" and comparing the all-party select committee responsible for grilling Rupert and James Murdoch to "a panel comprised of Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason, Dale Winton, Jim Bowen and Sooty". (Listeners were left to guess which MP most closely resembles a small glove-puppet bear.)

The format may now be as well worn and familiar as an old cardigan, but it's no less welcome for that.