BCG Daily Tuesday 23rd September 2014

Angela Barnes interview

Just before the Edinburgh Festival I wrote that Angela Barnes is the best mainstream female comedian I've seen since Sarah Millican. She had a great Edinburgh and I was surprised that she didn't figure in the Foster's Awards shortlists.

Radio Times review

The rude school sitcom, starring Jack Whitehall as the spectacularly loyal, endearingly thick teacher Alfie Wickers seems to have improved a notch from the slightly flat opener. Here we have a contrived but confident episode, which uses the classic trick of forcing our hero to be in three places at once.

So there's the fantasy convention organised by Alfie's tragically pitiable colleague (Mathew Horne), his girlfriend's book group and student Mitchell's leaving party. Will it go wrong? Of course it will... up to a point. Because just as with Whitehall's posh buffoon from C4's Fresh Meat, you wish Alfie well against your better instincts. And the writers don't let you down.

Andy Zaltzman, Soho Theatre - comedy review

During Andy Zaltzman's enjoyable new show, Satirist for Hire, the frizzy-haired comic fires back answers to audience questions, while onstage his material shuttles between scripted and improvised.

Video: Ricky Tomlinson on his play United We Stand

Actor Ricky Tomlinson is best known for his TV role as layabout dad Jim Royle in the BBC sitcom The Royle Family.

Tomlinson was jailed during the 1970s for his part in a building workers' strike. For 30 years he and the rest of the so-called Shrewsbury 24 have campaigned to clear their names.

The story has now been turned into a play United We Stand, writer Neil Gore and Ricky Tomlinson spoke to BBC Breakfast.

Roy Chubby Brown makes hospital donation & gets ticket

Comedian Roy Chubby Brown needed his sense of humour when he got a parking ticket at a North-East hospital minutes after handing over a cheque for £5,000 to help cancer patients.

Dave Lee Travis guilty of assault on Mrs Merton Show

Former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis has been found guilty of indecently assaulting a researcher working on TV's The Mrs Merton Show in 1995.

Pics: David Jason and Tim Healy film wedding scenes

David Jason and his Still Open All Hours castmates have been spotted filming wedding scenes in Doncaster ahead of the sitcom's revival.

The 80s comedy club where heckling became an art form

What's left of the old Mitre Arms sits on a grim, grey stretch of the A102, within gobbing distance of the Blackwall Tunnel. It looks like the sort of pub where you'd get bottled if you looked at someone in a funny way. So it's hard to believe that in the late 80s this place helped launch the careers of a generation of alternative comedians including Harry Enfield, Vic Reeves, Jenny Eclair, Jerry Sadowitz, Jeremy Hardy and Jo Brand.

TV preview: Scrotal Recall, C4

This new sitcom is nowhere near as bad as the title, but that doesn't make it any good.

Charlie Wernham: I'm not leaving Mitchell behind

Having played many young reprobates I can safely say that Mitchell is the most exciting and shocking. His constant abuse means I get to insult Jack Whitehall and the other cast members on a daily basis!

Rudy's Rare Records review

A delight from start to finish.

Nick Frost: I want to do a wrestling movie

Nick Frost is planning to star in his own wrestling movie.

Gareth Berliner joins Corrie

Comedian Gareth Berliner has landed a role in Coronation Street - his first ever TV acting job.

What We Did On Our Holiday review

If you like Outnumbered, you'll love this, as there's more than enough surprises to justify Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin taking their tried and tested approach with child actors to the big screen.

Review: Lee Mack: Hit The Road Mack

Lee Mack, who paces the stage with an impatient urgency, is unapologetic in his showmanship. He's a gag-man, too, with a generous supply of quotable one-liners, normally prefaced by a disingenuous assertion that what you're about to hear is 100 per cent true.

Dave Gorman interview

Dave Gorman talks about PowerPoint, deodorant statistics, and William Shatner's hairpieces.