The stand-ups who took over children's TV

Is performing for young audiences easier? Far from it say the comedians who do clubs at night and CBBC shows by day.

The best blissfully silly comedy for lockdown

Looking for some escapist laughs? Here are a few tips, from John-Luke Roberts' chaotic sketches to Flight of the Conchords' smile-guaranteed songs.

Stand-up special review: Mr Swallow - Houdini

Teething problems aside, it's really heartening that this show gets a second life through Soho Theatre On Demand, and brilliant that we finally have a permanent document of the stage material of Nick Mohammed - an underappreciated master of his craft.

Nick Mohammed interview

"I was chomping at the bit to do something hair-raising"

Lockdown Comedy 1: where to get your laughs this week

Live stand-up, podcasts and not the Eurovision Song Contest.

Hitmen review

The well-loved duo Mel and Sue bring much-needed laughter as incompetent assassins in this slightly plotted but enjoyable sitcom.

Intelligence is a new dark UK/US comedy about the intelligence services, starring David Schwimmer as a decidedly "Not Ross from Friends" type - brash, pompous, NSA agent Jerry Bernstein. Bernstein (who boasts having predicted 9/11) is transferred to our own cybercrime-tackling GCHQ in Cheltenham, only to find it peopled by a bunch of misfits, led by Chris (Sylvestra Le Touzel) and including over-friendly Joseph (Nick Mohammed, who also wrote the show).

A lot of the comedy in Intelligence comes from supposedly hyper-contrasting US and UK characteristics, which at first made it feel stiff and dated. The funniest moments came from Bernstein lording it over the Brits: "There's still this sense that I've wandered on to an abandoned farm." By the end of the double-episode opener, Intelligence (already commissioned for a second series) had warmed up considerably as a horror show of office dynamics.

Intelligence review

If Intelligence is ever going to be more than vaguely watchable they need to ramp up the suggestion that Jerry suffers many a crisis of confidence quickly then, as right now it's a little bland.

Nick Mohammed pens and stars in this new comedy set within the secretive confines of the GCHQ cybersecurity team - a close-knit group of misfits whose subdued, biscuit-eating existence is disrupted by the arrival of American NSA agent Jerry (David Schwimmer). In this opening double bill, the culture clash begins as Jerry tries to enlist the group in a spot of team building before Mohammed accidentally deletes all the personnel files, forcing everyone to redo their aptitude tests - with worrying results.