Lee Mack

Incredibly, this is the 20th anniversary and the 39th series of the BBC's flagship entertainment programme - the only entertainment programme that is consistently and genuinely entertaining. Paul Merton's unstoppable flow of surreal invention never seems to dry up, while Ian Hislop must be one of the few people on the planet who can appear on television suffering from a burst appendix and still manage to be funny. With an election looming, the big challenge of the new series - according to Richard Wilson, head of comedy at the production company Hat Trick - will be "to take the spectacularly dull things that politicians say and get laughs out of them". The host tonight is Lee Mack, with Alexander Armstrong and Jo Brand booked to appear later in the run.

Lee Mack interview

One of the UK's most beloved stand-ups, Lee Mack talks to Time Out about bonding with the audience and why he's so prone to weird heckles.

Interview: Lee Mack

"I'm trying to get my own variety series off the ground, which I'm doing a pilot for. It's early doors but I would be presenting my own show as opposed to being in a sitcom. I don't know what it is yet, but basically it's a variety show with a bit of stand up and sketches and that's what I'm trying to develop."

Return of the Mack

When I say 'Lee Mack's not going out', I'm not just giving you the title of his award-winning sitcom, but also a statement about his hectic schedule.

The joker in Lee Mack

When the BBC scrapped his sitcom Not Going Out, the comedian resolved to get out more by going on tour. Then the Beeb changed its mind.

Lee Mack Interview

A regular TV face from the Noughties, 40-year-old Lee Mack no longer needs to be a circuit comedian - something that must lead to a more settled domestic life. "No," he says, "Currently our house is like a burglary site.

Lee Mack: Bobby Ball is my comedy father

Lee says: "The first thing I can remember as a sort of performance was doing Bobby Ball impressions in the playground at school."

Held over from the end of the last series, back at the start of the year, this festively themed episode of Lee Mack's likeably daft sitcom (we demand more, by the way) features Bobby Ball as Lee's estranged dad. Although this man walked out on his family when his son was only four, Lucy (Sally Bretton) thinks her flatmate should forgive and forget.

Miranda Hart, aka the dozy cleaner out of Lee Mack and Tim Vine's one-liner-thon Not Going Out, gets her own sitcom, in which she runs a joke shop - badly - and fawns over the sexy chef in the restaurant next door - badly. At first, the humour is all a bit trouser-round-the-ankles obvious but once the fabulous Sally Philips turns up as one of Miranda's toff school friends, the high levels of daffiness bludgeon us into submission.

Very slightly disappointing guests this week, although Lee Mack's team does manage to accommodate the widely differing talents of beaming West End musical star Michael Ball and sulphurous TV grump Charlie Brooker. Both are good value (Ball even makes a sly joke about drugs), but on David Mitchell's team Trinny Woodall and Reece Shearsmith seem, well, out of sorts. No matter. This show has no problem overcoming the handicap of less-than-sparkling guests to deliver a half-hour of laughs. Tonight the flights of fancy (or are they brute facts?) include Shearsmith's alleged spell working in a themed funeral parlour and Brooker's claim that he pretended to a girlfriend for six years that he was partially deaf. But crucially, do three members of the cabinet subscribe to David Mitchell's Twitter feed? And, if so, who are they? You'll have to watch to find out.