Ainsley Harriott

Off Menu Podcast With Ed Gamble & James Acaster: the best episodes

Comedians Ed Gamble and James Acaster on the Off Menu podcast are especially good company because they're funny gluttons.

Red Nose Day for Comic Relief 2021, review

James Bond and Catherine Tate's Nan shine on hit-and-miss night.

Outrage as ITV mixes Ainsley Harriot with Lenny Henry

Viewers have expressed outrage after ITV cut to footage of Ainsley Harriott during Lenny Henry's knighthood interview.

Mongrels was one of my favourite shows from last year. Mind you, I'm a sucker for just about anything anthropomorphic. The fact that this and Radio 4 comedy Warhorses of Letters is on at the same time's made me a rather happy man this past week...

This show, often viewed as an animal puppet version of Family Guy, is always enjoyable to a certain degree. It's full of jokes, most of which seem to work, both in the main dialogue and the cutaway scenes. The characters are entertaining, from metrosexual fox Nelson (Rufus Jones) to it-bitch Destiny (Lucy Montgomery), to the f***ing foul-mouthed fox Vince (Paul Kaye).

The second series started with a double bill - which to me felt wrong, primarily because the second episode was a "Horror special" which really should have gone out on Halloween. What on Earth the BBC Three schedulers were thinking of I have no idea.

Still, both episodes were entertaining, with their jokes and musical numbers, especially with a guest appearance from Richard O'Brien as a zombie dog singing a Rocky Horror Show-style love song. The one problem I have with Mongrels is that because it's on BBC Three, it has a very BBC Three idea of what a celebrity is. For example: Clive Anderson - great. Ainsley Harriott - could be worse. Jeff Brazier - never heard of him. Danny Dyer - oh f*** off (as Vince might say).

Still, this is good show on the whole. Certainly one of the better comedies on BBC Three, which probably means it'll be axed...

Even if you're not a fan of the homely comedy, quite possibly you'll find yourself unable to resist this hour-long, humbug-packed Christmas episode. It follows the Harper brood (mostly mum Sue and dad Ben) over the entire festive period - from their pre-Christmas, wry grumbling session up until New Year's Eve. This year, Sue decides to cancel Christmas. Ben, however, feels uncharacteristically in the mood, a miraculous change that occurs when a sweet little girl sits on his knee and asks for his help. Later, the Harpers plan a New Year's Eve party to rival their neighbour's glitzy gathering. Can appearances by Rolf Harris and Ainsley Harriott persuade revellers that theirs is the cooler shindig? Take a wild guess.

Robert Lindsay thinks Christmas is rubbish (studio lolz). Then he meets Ainsley Harriott and realises that it's actually much, much worse (applause, end credits). There have been funnier world wars.

Gayle Tuesday makes a welcome return to the screen in Gayle Tuesday: The Comeback. Oh come on, you remember Gayle, the page three stunna and uber-bimbo who graced TV screens back in the nineties?

It was Gayle who memorably introduced the phrase "Oi, tits first! I'm not a slag", to British television.

A decade on we find Gayle, the comic creation of actress Brenda Gilhooly, in denial of middle age and intent upon a return to the world of celebrity.

It is all highly enjoyable and consistently funny, but at an hour in length each episode rather over stretches itself.

Toyah Willcox, Paul O'Grady, Ainsley Harriott, Harry Hill and Heston Blumenthal are among the famous faces sending themselves up, with Toyah winning the acting honours.

The inanities of the world of the minor celebrity are nicely skewered in this spiky mockumentary starring Brenda Gilhooly as the busty Gayle Tuesday, a former Page 3 girl desperate to break into TV. There's a tragic kind of humour to the dim and deluded Tuesday as she attempts to get noticed once again - and for more than the obvious reason. She lies her way to an appearance on an afternoon reality cookery show with Ainsley Harriott, then she blags an audition with Elle Macpherson on Britain's Next Top Model. The script is by Gilhooly and Harry Hill.

Gayle Tuesday, a (spoof) Page 3 girl who had her own series in 1996, is ready for a comeback. And Living is there to mock-ument her every move. As a show about fame, it picks easy targets, but there are moments of flair. It gets a lot better when it shifts towards Gayle's grotesque ambition and oneupmanship (a Toyah Willcox family funeral is particularly Partridge-like). Good fun, with game guest roles from Harry Hill (who script edits), Heston Blumenthal, Paul O'Grady and Ainsley Harriott.