Veronica Lee

Bridget Christie, Soho Theatre

Award-winning show finds the funnies in everyday sexism.

Opinion: should comedy critics quote gags in reviews?

Jason Manford has been writing on Facebook about how two high profile critics - Veronica Lee and Julian Hall - have quoted his jokes in their reviews of his recent Hammersmith Apollo show. I was going to answer him on Facebook but this is such a complicated issue I thought it deserved a little more space, so here goes.

Review: Andrew Maxwell, Soho Theatre

Essentially it's an hour of great storytelling and he covers a lot of ground, from trying to shock Norwegian audiences, the ethics of recycling, London geezers, and how the Crusades affect his sex life.

Review: Jason Manford, Hammersmith Apollo

Enjoyable but unchallenging everyman comedy.

Review: Man Down, Channel 4

Man Down is a sitcom with that pleasing but difficult-to-achieve combination - laugh-out-loud moments and truly touching scenes. A strong start.

Russell Brand, Hammersmith Apollo

Superb show that deconstructs the cult of celebrity.

Stand-ups are made for sitcom? Don't make me laugh

Creating quality comedy in whatever form is not easy. And while writing stand-up material and writing a sitcom are not mutually exclusive skills, sitcoms require more than gags - elements such dialogue, multi-strand storylines, exposition and narrative. Meanwhile, for some comics, subsuming their onstage persona into an ensemble piece can prove impossible.

Review: Brighton Comedy Festival opening gala

Michael McIntyre talked about moving to the country, being recognised and having eye tests, and he went down a storm with the audience, even when he did a really unfunny section involving an Angolan, complete with a weird accent.

Man Down, written by and starring 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Greg Davies, is, I can reveal, laugh-out-loud funny.

Over on Channel 4, rather later after the watershed for reasons that became quickly obvious, London Irish (***) started another six-week residency. The sitcom, about four Northern Irish twentysomethings living in the UK capital, is created and written by Derryite Lisa McGee. The foursome are sister and brother Bronagh (Sinead Keenan) and Conor (Kerr Logan), who share a flat with Packy (Peter Campion) and Niamh (Kat Reagan). Packy is a slacker, Niamh is a nympho, and has a jailbird boyfriend who bores her but whom she keeps in contact with "for a ride", while Bronagh has range of fruity insults for her dim brother, including "dickswab" and "fucktard".

They are part of a generation mercifully untouched by terrorism, so instead of brooding about the stereotypes of politics, religion and history, they can get on with living up to the, er, stereotypes of drinking too much, having lots of sex and and swearing like navvies. I think there's a joke in there somewhere, but McGee doesn't upend the tired tropes to make them funny.

Last night's story concerned Packy bumping into Ryan (Ciaran Nolan) from back home, who lost his hand while covering a shift in a garage for him, when he was shot in a hold-up. Packy organises a charity quiz - "like an exam in a pub" - at the foursome's local to raise funds for Ryan's new robotic hand. Cue lots of rather weak jokes about not him being able to clap or going to a fancy-dress party as Captain Hook - Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's one-legged actor auditioning for Tarzan it was most definitely not.

The opener was a bit frantic and unfocused, and the actors are all a little too shouty - always a bad sign in a comedy - and, despite some smart lines and the welcome presence of Ardal O'Hanlon as Bronagh and Conor's Da back home, it will have to improve swiftly to gain a dedicated following.