Radio Times review

Jo Brand applies her mordant wit to the fraught world of child protection as she typecasts herself as "the fat, bad-tempered one", Rose, in an office of social workers. She and her fellow socials, Al (Alan Davies) and Nitin (Romesh Ranganathan), are a fairly disarrayed bunch, as likely to be arguing over who should answer the phones as taking kids into care - Rose herself is a harassed single mum, trying desperately to arrange childcare before she leaves for work in the morning.

It all plays disturbingly naturally, with excellent support from Kevin Eldon, Pulling's Rebekah Staton and Brand's Getting On co-star Ricky Grover. The dark humour fizzes along - with a delicious kick at the end.

BBC Asian Network announces comedy night

On Friday 7 February in London, the station's Breakfast show presenter, Tommy Sandhu hosts an exciting line-up of performers including home-grown rising stars like Abdullah Afzal (Citizen Khan) who makes his stand-up debut; the master of "twerking" Mawaan Rizwan; BBC New Comedy finalist Tez Ilyas, impressionist Anil Desai and critically acclaimed Romesh Ranganathan.

Romesh Ranganathan interview

A teacher who swapped the classroom for life as a stand-up comic is on the rise, after supporting Ricky Gervais and appearing on BBC's Live at the Apollo.

Sean Lock shimmying across the dance floor, Strictly style, sporting a black nylon shirt open to the waist, is the jolly flight of fancy that opens tonight's laughter line-up. Young comedian Romesh Ranganathan brings his Asian DNA into play with a scurrilously hilarious take on racism and a creative approach to telling off other people's kids, which leaves Marcus Brigstocke to supply a cheeky clutch of gags on ageing, safaris, the Greek economy - and some beatboxing.

Host Sean Lock emerges from the clouds of dry ice looking as dapper as always, before launching into a routine about the risks, as a middle-aged man, of ever mentioning that you quite like something. Particularly around this time of year, he points out, expressing a passing interest in anything - a ferry, a bird - can result in ill-advised "experience" presents come Christmas Day.

Lock's longer routines are always good (there's a great one on the discrimination you suffer as a binge drinker), but his quick hits are good, too, including a dark, throwaway one-liner about hearing voices.

Following the host, Asian comic Romesh Ranganathan talks about how, because he has mixed-race kids, he and his wife try to get the kids to pick a side. Then Marcus Brigstocke explains the euro crisis by means of a nightclub allegory and some passable beatboxing. It's as plausible as anything on Newsnight.

Wherein the week is thoroughly mocked standing up rather than sitting down behind a desk, and in an even more ranty fashion. Paul Chowdhry takes over from Jon Richardson as the host for this series of the topical comedy show, taking the week's events and handing them off to comics for lampoonery. Regulars Seann Walsh and Josh Widdecombe return, this week joined by furrowed comic Simon Evans, former maths teacher Romesh Ranganathan and Russell Howard regular Angela Barnes.

Almost by stealth, this vaguely satirical, topical stand-up showcase has made it to a fifth series. Functioning as a sort of halfway-house testing ground between Mock the Week and Have I Got News for You, it's seen a surprisingly illustrious stream of light-entertainment talent pass through its doors.

Jack Whitehall, Kevin Bridges, Patrick Kielty and Rich Hall have all made appearances before moving on; this time Paul Chowdhry takes over hosting duties while regulars Seann Walsh and Josh Widdicombe are joined by newbies Simon Evans, Romesh Ranganathan and Angela Barnes in sticking the boot into the week's news. Decent post-pub fun, if you're in the market for that sort of thing.

This week's new live comedy

Previews of Romesh Ranganathan, Ian Cognito and Helen Keen.