Victor Lewis-Smith

Victor Lewis-Smith on QI

Devised and produced by the legendary John Lloyd, this is a comedy programme that isn't afraid to flex its intellectual muscles, and that's a regrettably rare phenomenon on television nowadays.

Victor Lewis-Smith on Room 101

Ever since the lacklustre Nick Hancock was replaced as presenter by the consummate Paul Merton, this show has become "must-see television" and that's largely due to the sheer professionalism of Hat Trick, a production company which has not only made millions out of television, but probably (albeit secretly) loves the medium as well.

Victor Lewis-Smith on Jack Dee Live At The Apollo

The Iraqi hostage crisis had apparently caused the replacement of the scheduled show (which would have included Iranian stand-up Omid Djalili) with another edition, but that hardly mattered to me, because Dee is a one-trick pony whose performances are always very much the same.

Victor Lewis-Smith on The Keith Barret Show

The BBC has long treated Baby Cow Productions as something of a sacred cow, and that's understandable when it turns out solid series like Alan Partridge, and the occasional dark masterpiece like Nighty Night, but it's also produced its fair share of stinkers, and this is one of them.

Like George and Mildred (another Man About The House offshoot), Robin's Nest is a charming but unremarkable relic of all that was best and worst about the Seventies.

He was undoubtedly a popular light entertainer, but on Saturday night, Les Dawson's Diaries (C4) claimed to have unearthed hitherto secret truths about "a very private man who never publicly revealed his true feelings", and spent an hour failing to persuade us that he was a deeply tragic figure. Rubbish.

The relentless and utterly callous mockery of the mentally, physically and terminally ill that permeates BBC2's Nighty Night ought, therefore, to render it unwatchable, and thoroughly dislikeable, too. Yet Julia Davis's bleak black-comedy drama is so bravely and inventively misanthropic that I found myself laughing more last night than I have done in years.

Victor Lewis-Smith on Demetri Martin's Comedy Lab 12:21

Channel 4 has always relied too heavily on the US for its comedy, but while the ratings appeal of Friends and Frasier is undeniable, why on earth are they commissioning dead weight like this?

It's said that comedy is tragedy plus time, in which case perhaps The Director's Commentary will be funny in about 150 years' time, because it's certainly a tragedy at the moment.

In short, Mad About Alice is a great mound of steaming Woolombooloom, and insensitive to boot, because after all, there's nothing funny about divorce.