Jimmy Carr

Jimmy Carr hosts the latest special edition of mirthsome panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats, which finds it "mashed up" with veteran Channel 4 word quiz Countdown. Team captains Sean Lock and Jon Richardson face off against each other as usual, but with anagrams and numbers as their weapons of choice. There are guests joining them, along with hairy comedian Joe Wilkinson, the show's longstanding lexicographer Susie Dent and resident number boffin, former Strictly contestant and lad mag fave Rachel Riley.

One of the few festive programmes where the people on screen are normally drunker than the viewers. Jimmy Carr again presides over a panel game that usually attracts a good deal of correspondence from people who like to be offended at Christmas.

The passing of legislation earlier this year forcing Jack Whitehall to be included in all comedy programmes on all channels was controversial, but - perhaps due to some sort of hangover from his competitive days as a public schoolboy - he's well suited to the quiz format.

Whitehall and fellow bellower Jonathan Ross have gentler comic minds to offset them, answering questions about the past 12 months of news: Kristen Schaal is this year's woman, and there's also Richard Ayoade, who's effortlessly defused this gnarly bearpit in past Big Fat Quizzes. Plus, Noel Fielding and Dara O'Briain.

Jimmy Carr: 'I have to tone it down for Royal Variety'

Jimmy Carr has admitted that he tones down his act when performing at the Royal Variety Performance.

Jimmy Carr on Ross Noble criticism: 'Why slag things off?'

Jimmy Carr has defended Mock the Week after it was recently criticised by Ross Noble.

'Tis the season to buy jolly DVDs

It was Super Monday this week - the comedy industry's equivalent to Super Thursday, when publishers flood the bookshops with celebrity memoirs and other sure-sellers for the festive market. So on Monday DVDs by Miranda Hart, Reginald D. Hunter, Micky Flanagan, Jack Dee, Eddie Izzard, Jimmy Carr, Bill Bailey, Seann Walsh, Keith Lemon and others hit the shelves.

Jimmy Carr's top five stand-ups

Jimmy Carr talks about which stand-ups still inspire him today.

Jimmy Carr: Only journalists who want to be offended

Jimmy Carr has said that the only people who "want" to be offended by things are journalists looking for stories.

Jimmy Carr interview

Jimmy Carr has said that the only people who "want" to be offended by things are journalists looking for stories.

After buying a house with a tennis court attached, Jonathan Ross developed a love of the game that finds him knocking up with a comedy coterie including Michael McIntyre, Jimmy Carr and David Baddiel. Tips from a Wimbledon champion are quite another thing, though, and having predicted that Andy Murray would triumph earlier this year, Ross welcomes him to the sofa to relive his glories.

They're joined by Celine Dion, whose new studio album Loved Me Back To Life is her first big English-language release since 2007. Perhaps unfairly, neither Murray nor Dion are known for their comedy punchlines, so Johnny Vegas and John Barrowman will be bringing the funny.