Stephen Mangan consigns Sheen's Tony Blair to history

Michael Sheen's decision to turn down The Hunt for Tony Blair gives Stephen Mangan the chance to outshine him.

Comic Strip returns with Tony Blair on the run

The Hunt for Tony Blair premieres in Edinburgh, with Stephen Mangan as Blair and Jennifer Saunders as Lady Thatcher.

When lampooning New Labour's no joke

The Comic Strip are returning with a satire targeting Tony Blair. Their timing couldn't be worse, says Gerard Gilbert.

Bumbling. Accident-prone. Racist. Dead. As this documentary shows, dads have usually drawn the short straw in Britcoms from the 1950s on - unlike their sensible wives or drily witty teenage spore. If they're not being the butt of jokes, they're just odious: Geoffrey Palmer in Butterflies, Old Man Steptoe, or Alf Garnett (pleasing symmetry that Warren Mitchell's on-screen son-in-law Tony Booth latterly became a real-life father-in-law-from-Hell for Tony Blair). Features clips from the likes of Only Fools ... , The Royle Family and Gavin & Stacey.

Rory Bremner as Tony Blair ahead of Chilcot Inquiry

Tony Blair, in the guise of Rory Bremner, previewed his appearance before the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War.

The three satirists continue to cast their jaundiced eyes over the recent financial meltdown and the failings of new Labour with a rage that hasn't been seen since the sleazy fag end of the last Conservative Government under John Major. Some of Bremner's impersonations, particularly Tony Blair and Ken Clarke, are almost uncanny, and there is a series of wonderful George Parr interviews between Bird and Fortune, especially those with John Bird as a smooth and unscrupulous banker. But the surprise star turn in the show is Gillian Tett, who - as assistant editor of the Financial Times - gives an entirely straight interview with Bremner about the early-warning signs of crisis. It's when you stop laughing that you realise she was being serious.