BCG Daily Wednesday 22nd January 2014

The day I starred in 'Only Fools and Horses'

David Beckham will have a hoot appearing on Only Fools and Horses, says Kate Saunders, whose part in one classic episode was the most enjoyable week's work she's ever done.

Review: Alex Horne: Lies - The Stand, Newcastle

Spoiler alert; if a comedian starts a bit with the words "this is absolutely true..." it's not - but considering they have to spend extended periods of time making strangers laugh, you can probably forgive comics for embellishing the truth about their antics a little. Not Alex Horne, however, who argues that most stand-up comedy is simply regurgitating other people's amusing stories. Horne's problem with this strategy, he admits, is that nothing funny ever happens in his own life.

Radio Times review

Eileen Atkins is this episode's celebrity guest, playing the head of a girls' finishing school that Arbiter Maven (Justin Chubb) wants to infiltrate, so he can get one of their nice silver pendants. Before long he and Sporall (Chris Bran) are in party dresses and pigtails, learning how to work a fringed umbrella - but the school has a dark and silly secret.

As usual, the irrelevant songs and sketches provide the biggest laughs: a sung obituary for the victims of a bad quiche, an ad for psychotropic chewing gum, and folk singer Melody Lane with the plaintive ballad I Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Really.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite for Italian job

Three years on from 2010's The Trip, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have reunited with director Michael Winterbottom for a sequel The Trip to Italy. According to Coogan, "it's exactly the same but sunnier."

QI: how to receive a letter from Shakespeare's Juliet

A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show. This week: QI puts its hand up in the name of volunteering.

Tommy Tiernan: Stray Sod, comedy review

With a sermon-like delivery half-way between home hearth and hellfire, Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan romps through his latest bawdy hour of observational comedy.

My comedy hero: Andrew Lawrence on Leonard Rossiter

I think what resonates with me is his ability so often as a performer to take an utterly unpleasant character and make them somehow charming; so much comedy lies in that contradiction.

Opinion: Reviewing the situation - or not in this case

I've been going to comedy gigs for as long as I can remember and reviewing them for nearly as long, but last night there was a first. I was sitting in an aisle seat about eight rows back from the stage at Frank Skinner's opening show at the Leicester Square Theatre. During his set there was a tap on my shoulder. It was one of the ushers: "Please do not take notes." "Why?" I asked. "It's policy."

Review: Frank Skinner, Leicester Square Theatre

There was plenty to smile about beyond the filth - after seven years away from stand-up, Skinner's act now includes haikus and references to Plato.

Lenny Henry: TV should employ more black & Asian people

Comedian says urgent action is needed to reverse fall in number of minority ethnic people in creative industries.

Actress-writer Ruth Jones is on a roll

Eager fans continue to speculate about a comeback for Gavin & Stacey. In an exciting development for the show's legions of supporters, Jones won't rule it out.

Frank Skinner on stand-up comedy and getting older

Frank Skinner is about to tour as a stand-up for the first time since 2007. But don't expect Jack the Lad, he's now more man in a suit, hears Jay Richardson.

Rab C. Nesbitt on the 2014 Scottish referendum debate

"This referendum will be asking me who I'd prefer to be marginalised by: Holyrood or Westminster?"

Mrs Brown's Boys wins best Comedy at NTAs 2014

Brendan O'Carroll's BBC One sitcom beat Ricky Gervais's Derek, Miranda Hart's BBC One comedy and US import The Big Bang Theory.

Frank Skinner - Man in a Suit review

The West Midlander often jumps to new, contrasting topics with little explanation, an approach that could do with a bit of tightening, and occasionally it's a bit too slow-moving. But Man in a Suit sees Frank Skinner on fine form: warm, chatty and self-deprecating, with plenty of droll one-liners to quote at work the next day.

Mrs Brown's Boys creator: Screw the critics!

Brendan O'Carroll says he doesn't care about negative reviews as Mrs Brown's Boys wins its second NTA in a row.