Top of the Pods - How live podcasts are taking over comedy

The format has gone from low-cost side hustle to, for some, a lucrative bread-winner, and audiences are flocking to them.

"He was pushing some mysterious envelope and he made the public an accomplice," says John Cooper Clarke of Chris Sievey, the restless genius responsible for Timperley's Frank Sidebottom. This is the extraordinary and moving story of the late outsider artist inside the papier-mache head, featuring contributions from collaborators such as Jon Ronson and Mark Radcliffe. As the latter observes, Sievey's antics were somehow extremely silly and extremely clever at the same time.

Frank Sidebottom film gets world premiere next month

The Frank Sidebottom documentary Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, will be released in UK cinemas later this year after its world premiere at next month's South By Southwest Film Festival in Texas, Chortle can reveal.

It's taken until series 49 for author and film-maker Jon Ronson to make his debut as a HIGNFY panellist, a belated opportunity for the soft-spoken documentarian to witness the satirical-surreal power struggle between captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton up close. With any luck, some poor soul will have been recently crucified in the court of public opinion after a social media blunder, allowing Ronson to share some of the wisdom he acquired while researching his latest bestseller, So You've Been Publicly Shamed.

Jon Ronson interview

Jon Ronson on public shaming, dongle jokes and celebrity lookalike dogs.

In conversation with Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is a busy man, this Cardiff-born, New York-based writer, film-maker and broadcaster clearly juggling lots of big deadlines. But he was nothing less than charming and entertaining when we caught up via a web link from NYC this week, telling me about his seven-date A Frank Talk tour, his surreal brush with pop fame, and much more.

There's the obvious danger that Alan Davies's new show could quickly descend into a swaggering knob-measuring contest, featuring as it does four celebrities talking about whatever they want to around a big table in front of a studio audience, until an appropriate show title presents itself. And indeed, the anecdotes come thick and fast in this first instalment, from Noel Fielding, Kerry Godliman, Andrew Maxwell and Jon Ronson. However, it's actually rather charming, Ronson's mistaken identity story in particular.

Radio Times review

If you've ever wondered what it'd be like going for a pint with Noel Fielding, Jon Ronson, Kerry Godliman and Andrew Maxwell (I know I have), here's a chance to find out.

With no agenda, no theme and a trickle of booze, this blank-canvas chat show aims to re-create the informal intimacy of a pub conversation, and it works really well.

Alan gives his guests plenty of room to waffle, and Noel Fielding is excellent value as usual; particularly with the story about how he disappeared on tour, and was found the following day working in a vintage boutique in Brighton.

Frank review - engrossing, tender breakdown

Michael Fassbender's chops remain hidden during most of this beguiling tragicomic fable inspired by Jon Ronson's memoir about indie enigma Frank Sidebottom.

The Dog Thrower misfired on almost every level. Continuing its policy of recruiting big-name actors to its small-scale dramas, the programme cast former Friends star Matthew Perry as the eponymous canine trainer/tormentor.

We first meet Perry in the park launching and catching his pet spaniel. At first, the spectacle attracts a curious and appreciative crowd, and even an imitator in the form of Tim Key and his mongrel. But an unscrupulous local journalist twists the story, turning their fame to infamy, and the pair of dog throwers quickly become social pariahs.

So full marks to writer and director Jon Ronson for originality. However, the decision to pare the dialogue down to an almost silent movie-minimum rendered the narrative incomprehensible, the humour clouded and the characters' motivations baffling. It was a gimmick that backfired disastrously, and that certainly wasted Perry's considerable screen charisma and comedy skills.

But, on a more positive note, The Dog Thrower did go some way to make amends by ending upon a very funny, and totally unexpected, visual gag.