Would I Lie To You?

On top form, this soars like an eagle above just about every other comedy and panel show on TV. In this episode Downton Abbey's Mr Carson, Jim Carter, reveals himself to be a bit of a comedy star, deadpanning a tale of how he serves the Downton cast lunch in his butler pomp when they are off duty. Meanwhile, young whippersnapper Jack Whitehall has fun with a story about a lady and his duvet "toggage". But it's Armando Iannucci's tale of a baboon and a visit to a safari park that sends everyone into surreal flights of fancy.

This week the show it features not one, but two, token women!

Josie Lawrence and Sarah Millican join host Rob Brydon and team captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell to help sort fact from fiction.

Also in tonight's episode we hear about the evil eye expression Huw Edwards employs during interviews.

And former Corrie star, game-show host and corpser extraordinaire Bradley Walsh fails miserably to maintain a poker face tonight.

His story - involving the theft of some mashed potato - will be submitted to the show's usual ruthless scrutiny, cross-interrogation and lightning wit.

"Talk about the Euro and do it with some level of insight!" demands David Mitchell of Lee Mack, in that pretend-outraged voice he uses a lot on this show. Mack gets his own back by demanding that Mitchell talk about last year's Carling Cup final. Neither of them can oblige, of course, but that's not the point: they're putting to the test the idea that Huw Edwards has an "evil eye" expression he uses to cut colleagues short in a studio discussion if they're going on too long. Edwards scowls a lot to demonstrate.

Sarah Millican, Josie Lawrence and Bradley Walsh are the other guests, with Walsh enjoyably corpsing as he tries to pretend he once stole mashed potato from his teachers.

David Mitchell is sandwiched between two TV giants this week. Literally. Pointless's Richard Osman and The Inbetweeners' Greg Davies are both about 6ft 8 in tall where Mitchell is a good ten inches shorter.

Osman's dry wit has won him a cult following among daytime viewers but given the wider platform of primetime TV, it turns out he's genuine comedy gold. His first attempt to bamboozle his opponents involves a Cluedo-esque story about burying a badger with the Banker from Deal or No Deal. It leaves his fellow panellists crying with laughter. Patsy Kensit has her comedy moments too, though. When asked rhetorically by a straightfaced Osman, "You're not an actress, are you, Patsy?" she swiftly replies: "A lot of people would say no."

In the remainder of the show Bob Mortimer insists he can split an apple with his bare hands, while Davies reveals he is the schoolboy creator of the "Snorkel Parka Music Practice Room" game.

The joy of this series is the way it veers into comic byways. For instance, when Gabby Logan claims she throws things across the room at night to remind her of things to do in the morning, the discussion spins off into the question of whether or not she has slept with her team captain, David Mitchell. (He's on masterful comic form, but then, when isn't he?)

The "This is my..." round is genuinely harder to guess than usual: is mystery-man Kevin an EastEnders superfan who changed his name to Albert Square, Christian Jessen's surgeon or Lee's bum double from Not Going Out? Other tangents include an impression of the Alien stomach-burst scene from Rob Brydon.

Ah, Des O'Connor. Indefatigable crooner, Morecambe and Wise foil, chat-show host and borderline national treasure. Who knew he's daft enough to eat cat food by accident? Or is he? Maybe his long, peculiar story about how he dined on this strange dish in a holiday villa is all nonsense.

O'Connor, looking as bronzed as a 70s sideboard, is a game contestant on Lee Mack's team, and quickly gets into the spirit of the show after a giggly start. Meanwhile, on David Mitchell's team, Rhod Gilbert regales us with an account of the acute trauma he suffered at an airport.

And comic actress Sally Phillips (Smack the Pony, Miranda) apparently plays a texting-game with her husband while he's at the swimming baths. Worse, she once rode her uncle's mobility scooter with disastrous consequences. Perhaps. It's a great show, and what Friday nights are for.

There's a sad story from Richard Bacon: when he worked in McDonald's his girlfriend joined the queue for his till and dumped him when she reached the counter.

Of course, it could be complete tosh and the fun lies in the inquisition. As Bacon is on David Mitchell's team that means he's extensively quizzed by Lee Mack, backed by Clare Balding and a giggly Miranda Hart. And Balding is entertainingly cruel when Bacon reels off some facts about the cooking times of burgers.

Also, Dale Winton reveals how, as a child, instead of a comfort blanket or a teddy bear, he slept with a potato, while Hart insists she was a judge at the Identical Twins of the Year Award.

"This is a horrible stupid game!" moans David Mitchell towards the end of tonight's episode. "Whatever we say, if we get it wrong, we'll look like we've believed something ridiculous." Yes, that's the general drift: anecdotes and personal habits so far-fetched we refuse to believe they're true, though some must be.

Did Richard Madeley really wake up naked in a cupboard one Christmas morning, holding two cans of spray snow? Do pigeons nest using clippings from Kate Humble's hair? As the controversies rage, they're all leading up to the priceless sparring between Mitchell and rival captain Lee Mack. This week's battleground: pens.

While some panel shows are having trouble finding their footing, Would I Lie To You? just seems to keep going from strength to strength.

Rob Brydon, David Mitchell and Lee Mack seem to make a perfect team. There's so many angles for them to play with: Mitchell's poshness verses Mack's working class background; Mitchell's southerness and Mack's northerness; Mitchell and Mack's Englishness verses Brydon's Welshness, and so on.

There is one significant change to this new series, however, that being the show is now on before the watershed. This, for me, is a worry. You may remember that this happened to QI when it moved to BBC One, which ended up as a failure and resulted in QI moving back...

However, it would seem that it's survived this changed. The show seems to be just as funny as ever, especially the bit when Mack trying to claim that his ex-girlfriend's names spell out the world "Bermuda". The guests, Alexander Armstrong, Mel Giedroyc, Alex Jones and Chris Tarrant, provided much amusement too.

Would I Lie to You? - review

Panel shows are better when there's class war involved.