This week's new live comedy

Previews of Romesh Ranganathan, Wring Out The Clowns and Bowieoke Circus.

Romesh Ranganathan's comedy hero

The Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and Asian Provocateur star picks some iconic Americans as his comic idols.

Interview: Romesh Ranganathan

"I'm embarrassed to say it, but I thought comedy would be easy"

The Must-Sees of 2016: comedy

Featuring Billy Connolly, Isy Suttie, Vic and Bob, Frankie Boyle, Romesh Ranganathan, Rob Delaney, Julian Clary and Sara Pascoe.

Looking back on what has been a notably depressing year, it might seem a near-impossible task to pick out moments worthy of levity. Thankfully, that is the job of Jimmy Carr and regular team captains Jon Richardson and Sean Lock, old hands at refashioning the awfulness of the real world into digestible chunks of frippery. Panellists Isy Suttie, Richard Osman, Joey Essex and Romesh Ranganathan assist them, while elsewhere games and surprises are promised.

A seasonal episode of the show that - like the Twitter account it grew from - does pretty basic observational comedy, but does it pretty well. On TV, it helps that the status of the contributors is bewilderingly high: sitting in various lovely interiors tonight are David Tennant, James Corden, Rich Hall, Romesh Ranganathan, Catherine Tate and Danny Dyer. Among the agonies wryly shared are how much to pay carol singers and when to abandon a bad party.

Penultimate episode of the sitcom starring self-deprecating comic Josh Widdicombe as a fictive version of himself. Despite a shaky start, it has slowly moved away from sub-Peep Show flatshare gags, and tonight's outing is its funniest yet. Landlord Geoff (Jack Dee) has let out his flat for London fashion week, and packed Josh, Kate and Owen off to Clacton. Unfortunately for the friends, he's tagging along, too, with an awkward nephew and an unlikely proposition for Josh. The Chuckle Brothers and Romesh Ranganathan guest star.

Romesh Ranganathan on getting embarrassed by his mum

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan very reluctantly agreed when his mum asked him to explore his Sri Lankan roots for new BBC Three show Asian Provocateur. So, much to Romesh's regret, we gave him and mum Shanthi a call to see what makes their relationship so special...

Romesh Ranganathan interview

For his new BBC3 series, the London-based comedian went to Sri Lanka to explore his roots and basically sweat a lot. Here are six things he 'learned'.