Having proved his mettle on shows like Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and Lee Mack's All Star Cast, the charmingly eccentric stand-up comic Milton Jones turns his hand to sitcom tonight with this one-off pilot episode. Sadly no preview discs were available, but the set-up looks promising, with Jones starring as a gaffe-prone man who lives with his mother and a handful of lodgers in a battered old house. If past form is anything to go by, viewers can expect a good deal of surreal humour and some brilliant non-sequiturs.

He of the wild, staring eyes, Milton Jones has until now been the preserve of the stand-up and panel-show circuits, but here he appears on our tellies as a 21st-century Rigsby. Milton and his mother live together, renting out some of their spare rooms to various peculiar tenants. But the equally peculiar landlord is entranced by Alice, a girl of few words to whom he cannot quite succeed in conveying his passions. When competition turns up, in the shape of new tenant Paul, Milton is forced to up his game.

Mock The Week's Andy Parsons takes on hosting duties tonight.

Don't worry about the first two or three minutes, when you might think he's having a bit of an off-day - he's on fire for the rest of his set, covering everything from the war in Afghanistan to how to deal with cats who use your garden as a toilet (before people call the RSPCA on me, while I find his idea funny, I wouldn't actually use it myself!).

His first act is the brilliant Andrew Lawrence, the self-confessed scary-faced comic who has been popping up on various panel shows this year.

I first saw Andrew a few years ago at a comedy club when he was a relative newbie to the circuit, and he was so funny he stole the show from the other, more experienced comics.

So it's lovely seeing him get this prime time platform (and, in my view, steal the show again, which is really going some considering his stage mates). Completing the comedy line-up is king of the one-liners Milton Jones... he of the messy hair, vacant stare and psychedelic shirt.

Combined, the three comedians give you a reason to stay in. Although with BBC iPlayer and its clones, not to mention magic set-top boxes that record entire series at the touch of a button, who revolves their lives around watching TV these days?

Oh yeah... that's right, I do. Doh!

The acts may be hit and miss but stand-up comedy is still enough of a draw to keep the ratings up for the seventh series of this comedy showcase recorded at London's Hammersmith Apollo. Tonight's host Andy Parsons, the bald-domed star of Mock the Week, will be joined by Andrew Lawrence for a large helping of innocuous observational comedy, while panel show regular Milton Jones will offer up a portion of silly, but entertaining one-liners.

Milton Jones: Taking Christ Out of Christmas

If you're an atheist, why not go out and look up at the night sky towards all those tiny jewels of light twinkling from thousands of light years away and think to yourself "that's all a bit of luck then." I'm a Christian and I'm winding you up of course. But perhaps there is something we agree on - taking the 'Christ' out of Christmas for instance.

Ardal O'Hanlon is on good form as the headline act at Dublin's Olympia Theatre, his saucer-eyed wonder undercut by a surreal streak. Supporting him on this trip back to his local theatre are Gary Delaney (a one-liner machine in the same vein as Milton Jones and Tim Vine) and the whimsical Josie Long.

Of the two, Long is the more appealing performer, with her diatribe on The Sun's Page Three girls being particularly well executed. Delaney is perhaps someone more to admire than like - you can't help but be in awe of someone who remembers so many gags, although the fact that he finds his own material quite so amusing does start to grate.

Milton Jones interview

Comedian Milton Jones is a master of his craft, and his craft is the one-liner. He talks about joke theft, Christianity and more in this interview...

Five minutes with... Milton Jones

Milton Jones is a popular stand-up comedian. He tells Dave Mark about the difference between Milton the man and Milton the persona as well as the art of the one-liner.

This week saw Mock the Week enter into double-figures as the show entered its 10th series. Judging by the latest episode, it's set to continue for some time to come.

Without Russell Howard, the show guest starred Chris Addison, Greg Davies, Milton Jones and Seann Walsh. Out of the guests, it was Jones, with his surreal and clever one-liners, and Walsh, who came up with the best Michael McIntyre impression I've ever come across, who stole the show. The other comics had moments too, with Davies coming up with a Blackadderesque extended simile about his grandmother's use of facial products.

There was some interesting stuff from the regulars as well, such as Dara O'Briain introducing a round called: "There's No Super-injunction on our Ryan Gags", and Hugh Dennis's running joke about Sepp Blatter's name sounding like the German for "step ladder".

Annoyingly, like in so many satirical comedies, many of the jokes were lazy. Addison did one about Eric Pickles and his weight, while Walsh made one about Wayne Rooney's stupidity. Walsh also got a rather cheap laugh from making up a taunted schoolboy called Richard Poowillie.