Stand Up & Deliver, review

Left-wing comedian Nick Helm coached Baroness Warsi for a Stand Up To Cancer special and they made a surprisingly delightful double act.

Jason Manford teaches Shaun Ryder to be stand-up comic

The pair teamed up for Channel 4's Stand Up And Deliver, a two-part series starting tonight where comics teach famous faces how to be funny. "Shaun's got severe ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)," Jason explains. "So remembering things, collecting information and taking on new thoughts, it's been a real challenge."

Shaun Ryder swore 121 times during 10 minute set

The Happy Mondays frontman dropped a staggering 110 f***s, six sh*ts, two c***s, two a***s and a b*****ks in his ten minute set on Stand Up And Deliver.

Another Monday; another hour of Alan Carr squawking at celebrities in the name of light entertainment. This week, the guests included Cheryl Cole, Michael McIntyre and the unfathomable loudness of Stacey Solomon, all of whom were surrounded by tinsel and general festive tat, just in case we'd forgotten that Christmas was almost upon us.

Jungle queen Stacey and jungle profanity-provider Shaun Ryder appeared first on the show, covering such topics as Gillian McKeith and Solomon's disastrous appearance on the X Factor final.

The questions were rightly light-hearted and as the always-watchable McIntyre came on to talk about his impending Britain's Got Talent gig, the show became even more festively cheery.

All that energy seemed to rub off on our host, as his pre-chat stand-up was on much better form than last week and he generally seemed less nervous, bouncing off his sprightly guests.

But what would happen when the omnipresent Ms. Cole came on stage? Could she maintain the energy of the programme? It seemed unlikely, given her propensity to talk at a speed suggestive of strong sedative consumption.

Sure enough, once an ill-advised acoustic performance of one of Cheryl's songs was out of the way, the show got bogged down in conversation about X Factor controversies. As Cole (very slowly) defended herself, it all became a bit bleak, but she soon perked up and though she did discuss her brush with malaria, not a single tear was shed.

This show is only ever going to be as good as its guests and tonight it was very good indeed.

In a depressingly retrograde studio audience format, compere and comedian Rufus Hound does something the futurists never dreamt of - looks back with a wry, nostalgic eye to the year 2000. As clips remind us, this was the year of Big Brother's inauguration, of Geri Halliwell at the UN, of Tony Blair being booed by the Women's Institute, of the beginning of George Bush's disastrous Presidency. We could do without Hound's constant prompts as to what to find amusing in all this. Shaun Ryder, Mr 2000 himself, guests.

Essentially, this is Channel 4's answer to Live at the Apollo, with which, annoyingly, it clashes. Near-the-knuckle stand-up Rufus Hound performs live in front of an audience at London's Hackney Empire, with the twist that his routine is entirely based around mocking the people and events of the year 2000. He's not short of targets, from the arrival of Big Brother to the no-show of the millennium bug to doomed celebrity marriages (Brad and Jen, Madonna and Guy, Macca and Heather). His approach is unashamedly crude and cruel (there's some really off-colour material about Jill Dando and Barry George), but in the course of two hours, there are laughs too, as well as a bizarre appearance from gum-chewing Happy Monday Shaun Ryder.