Julian Barratt: 'Pain - that's what life is all about'

Julian Barratt, the melancholic half of The Mighty Boosh reveals why he's terrified of his first stage role as the mayor in Gogol's The Government Inspector.

Running nightly this week are this year's seasonal shorts little crackers from Sky One, which annually tries to make up for the dearth of decent original drama and comedy from January-November by gorging us with a festive selection box featuring some of the best-known names in the business.

This time they've got the likes of Victoria Wood, Catherine Tate, Stephen Fry, Kathy Burke, Julian Barratt, Jo Brand, Bill Bailey - oh, the list goes on, basically anyone who's ever appeared on a panel game is either appearing in, writing or directing one of these 12-minute films, mostly based on autobiographical stories about their childhoods.

And like a selection box, there are a few yucky praline noisette ones. David Baddiel's film is as annoying as he is, though it does feature a good impersonation of Record Breakers star Norris McWhirter by Alastair McGowan, who must have been delighted to get a chance to do an impression he probably last did as a child. Chris O'Dowd has a dull grumpy Santa story and Dawn French oddly casts herself as the late Queen Mother.

But there are some nice strawberry cream ones too: Victoria Wood's is a sweet, nostalgic tale, Julian Barratt's teenaged heavy metallers are quirky and Kathy Burke's memory of meeting Joe Strummer is endearing. Anyway, they're all over so quickly that even the ho-hum ones are watchable enough - shame though that for Sky, decent original programmes come barely more than once a year.

A very pleasant spoof spy show, which boasts The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt in the title role. It's actually written by the two other comic actors David McNeill and Colin Hoult who make up the cast. It's twenty minutes long, set in the Seventies and features lines such as: "I thought I was in love with your mother. But it turns out that your mother was you... wearing a lovely hat." And exchanges like: "Zimbani wants a new Africa with him at the wheel." "He wants to turn Africa into a car?" Enjoyable - but making it half an hour, let alone trying a series, would be pushing it.

Isn't Hollywood a hoot? That's the rationale behind this new show from funnyman Marc Wootton, who plays three Brits determined to make it big in LA. Talentless filmmaker Brendan, wannabe action hero Gary and disgraced psychic Shirley Ghostman ruffle feathers wherever they go. The twist is that Wootton is the only one acting, whereas the producers, directors and casting agents that he befuddles are genuine, unwittingly going about their business. Deadpan narration from The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt completes the set-up, and the result is surprisingly effective. It's already proved a hit Stateside, with Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David giving it a thumbs-up.

Fake pigeons dangling from wires, an alcoholic bird and a woman who can talk to animals. These are the surreal ingredients of the return of C4's Comedy Lab pilots tonight. Coincidentally, there's also a talking dog you could describe as a comedy lab - as in Labrador.

If you're a fan of BBC4's Flight Of The Conchords you'll recognise US comedian Kristen Schaal, who stars as Penelope and wrote this with her pal and co-star Kurt Braunohler.

The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt plays an MP who Penelope has just 3,762 days to assassinate. It's funny, charming and daffy but will it make a series?

Kristen Schaal will be familiar as superfan Mel from Flight of The Conchords, but she also writes and performs in this comedy pilot, Penelope Princess of Pets. The premise is bizarre: Penelope can talk to the animals and, on a sightseeing trip to London, learns that an MP called Stone (Julian Barratt) plans a war between the humans and the animals.

Kristen Schaal, the amusingly creepy/kooky obsessive fan woman from Flight Of The Conchords, plays Penelope, a sort of Prozac Nation Saint Francis Of Assisi, and Julian Barratt is her nemesis, an evil Tory MP. Quirky rather than hilarious, but worth a squizz on an off-night for telly generally.

True fans will have bought the boxed-set, nabbed front-row seats at the tour and driven their nearest and dearest mad quoting Bob Fossil. But you'll probably want to tune in for this repeat anyway. It wasn't until series two that most of us cottoned onto The Boosh, and this opening episode exhibits the anarchic genius of creators Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding (aka Howard Moon and Vince Noir). Having escaped the zoo, Howard decides that the only way to secure fame and fortune is to track down a Yeti. It really does get better every time.

Try to catch the last in the series of The Boosh. Fans of Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt's absurdist comedy will be aware that The Mighty Boosh (absurdly enough) started life in 2001 as a radio series on GLR, sandwiched in the middle of the football coverage. If you enjoyed the first TV series - set in a zoo - and you subscribe to the view that pictures are better on the radio, you'll like this episode. Howard and Vince have their first encounter with the cockney hitcher as they take Tony the Prawn (a psychological killer) to the animal offenders' zoo run by Bob Fossil's twin brother Wilbur. Some of the themes and songs will be familiar, some will be new. But the tunes are all earworms that will burrow their way in for a good 24 hours. "I'm Bob Fossil / And my anger is colossal ... "

Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, otherwise known as The Mighty Boosh, present a two-week exploration of the Monty Python team's comedy LPs - which, predating as they did the home video market, were often the only way that fans could experience sketches and songs that would otherwise have disappeared from memory.