Radio Times review

Paul Sinha is a bright lad who's becoming well-known for his quiz show appearances. His new Radio 4 series, in which he offers his take on historical events, seems calculated to appeal to Radio Times readers: Sinha deplores people who are uninterested in anything that happened before they were born.

The first show combines two of Sinha's specialist subjects, football and great navigators, and explains why Brazilians and Argentineans can kick a ball with more skill than Brits. It's not uproariously funny. It needs a shot of the off-the-wall observation that distinguishes QI, a television programme on which, for some unaccountable reason, Sinha has never appeared.

But it's undeniably interesting, full of the kind of information that might come in handy for the next pub quiz.

You may be wary of the current fashion for being prepared to tackle serious subjects only with the forceps of comedy but you will be eventually won over by Paul Sinha's History Revision (Wednesday, 6.30pm, Radio 4). The comedian and serial panellist takes as his text the popularity of football and carries his live audience back on a journey encompassing slavery, Brazil, the Pope and the treaty of Tordesillas of 1494.