Matt Berry's Christmas Q&A

The comedian and musician says it doesn't feel like Christmas until he panics, and reveals what his character Steven Toast would do on the big day.

Nish Kumar's Christmas Q&A

The standup comedian reveals his secret for effective Christmas shopping.

Bill Bailey's Christmas message

The comedian reveals his Hawaiian pudding nightmare - and explains why he ignores Christmas in his shows.

Through the Keyhole: TV review

There are only two possible reasons for you to watch. The first is if, after years of the original, and MTV Cribs, and others, you still feel a powerful urge to gawp at the lavish living rooms of the rich and famous. The second is if the idea of a man pretending to be an idiot mucking about in a stranger's house sends you into paralysing fits of giggles.

My Hero - Ben Miller on Tony Hancock; TV review

Ben Miller gave us a profile of Tony Hancock with an unexpected depth of insight.

Quick Cuts (BBC4) was far less hellish [than reality show Hollywood Me] and had just the one real problem. The performances were strong, the comic timing impeccable, the direction sharp, the idea - a sitcom about a dysfunctional workplace family of hairdressers - a nice one. It just didn't quite have characters. Unfortunately, without strong characters there is no sitcom.

What it did have was labels: the debt-ridden shopaholic; the mid-transformation transsexual woman; the eternally single one. Beyond those descriptions it would be a struggle to find adjectives to describe any of them. It didn't help that mother figure Sue spent most of the first episode high as a kite on dodgy anxiety pills, getting excited that her wee had turned blue. We reached the end of the pilot knowing almost nothing about the main character's normal behaviour. Which, like bright blue wee, is a bad sign.

It may yet find its feet. Sitcoms often take more than one episode to find out who their characters are. But the risk is that their issues will continue to obscure their personalities. If they do Quick Cuts could be in for a quick cut.

Love and Marriage - TV review

In this comedy drama about a late-life crisis in the Paradise family, a great cast helps you go gentle into the viewing night.

It's GCSE results day, and straight-laced Yemi has straight A grades and a hard-working family keen for him to suit up, enrol at a stuffy sixth-form college and knuckle down to a life of law or medicine. But fun-loving flunky cousin Jay reckons he's one open-mic night away from being discovered as a rapper and wants Yemi along to mix his beats and live it large with him in the world of hip-hop.

What you make of it all will depend pretty heavily on your attitude to the show's distinctly "authentic" dialogue, full of bluds, bruvs, mandems and other words and phrases that will have the less down-with-it viewer googling frantically to keep up. Get on board with the lingo and it's an amusing enough ride, albeit one to nowhere in particular. But then that's being young in a nutshell, really, isn't it?

Comedy in the Dark: Comics are turning the lights out

Comedy nights are rarely well-lit, but this is taking things to extremes.

TV review: The Cafe

As a portrait of the tedium of life in a quiet seaside town, The Cafe was all too accurate. The main problem is that the pace is painfully slow. Glacial, even