Alan Davies

Alan Davies on QI, being attacked and that tramp

With QI and Jonathan Creek, Alan Davies established himself as comedy's good-natured boy next door. But, as he publishes a memoir of his teenage years, he reveals a rebellious young man at odds with life in Eighties Essex.

BBC2 green lights Alan Davies chef comedy

BBC2 has greenlit Whites, the kitchen comedy penned by Peep Show star Matt King and featuring Alan Davies as a lacklustre celebrity chef.

Renwick confirms return of Jonathan Creek

Alan Davies is set to reprise his role as magician sleuth Jonathan Creek for a second feature-length special for Easter next year, writer David Renwick has confirmed.

The Judas Tree was initially slated to air next Christmas, but the writer said that budget issues had pushed the project back.

Stephen Fry's comedy-quiz QI has become so popular that it's transferred from BBC2 to BBC1 (a la Have I Got News For You), but otherwise it's business as usual for the comedians given schoolboy roles, with Fry as the indubitable headmaster and Alan Davies the class dunce. Tradition dictates that, as the sixth series, the trivia revolves around the letter 'F'. Of course, things aren't particularly strict, and conversations veer off into random, surreal tangents. The only disappointing thing with QI is a tendency to make smutty, schoolboy jokes usually involving sexual innuendo. There's nothing wrong with such comedy, but QI is guilty of spending far too long giggling at crudities, when the real gems of the show are to be found elsewhere.

After a five-year absence, Jonathan Creek returned with a two-hour special, The Grinning Man. Vanishing guests in a haunted attic was the theme, with Alan Davies joined by Sheridan Smith as his latest sleuthing sidekick.

As an audience participation puzzle it couldn't be faulted. I spent the final 30 minutes hurling increasingly desperate and ultimately incorrect speculations at the screen - It's a false knife!, It's a false corpse!, The magician is the reincarnation of his grandfather! etc - but never came close to unravelling any of the several mysteries contained in David Renwick's script.

But for all its ingenuity, Renwick's work just couldn't support its excessively indulgent running time, with the drama beginning to sag long before the murderer was revealed.

Of all the revivals dredged up by the BBC this Christmas, this was the worst. We thought it would never end; Alan Davies still can't act very well; the mystery was far from gripping; the denoument was silly. There's no clamour for a new series from us.

QI goes Dutch

The Netherlands is to get its own version of QI. Public broadcaster VARA has bought the rights to remake the Stephen Fry panel show, with Dutch author Arthur Japin as host. Comedian Thomas van Luyn will be the only regular guest, as Alan Davies is in the BBC version.

Alan Davies Interview

Leading man Alan Davies was under no illusions when he reflected on returning to the role after a five year absence.

Stephen Fry's QI to move to BBC1

BBC2's Stephen Fry-hosted comedy panel show QI is set to move to BBC1 for its new series.

The show, which sees panellists such as Alan Davies competing to provide the most interesting answer to obscure trivia questions, is one of BBC2's most watched programmes, hitting 4.8 million viewers in November - the channel's third highest rating of 2007.

Discussions are currently taking place within the BBC about the move, which is expected to be given the green light soon.

"It is only natural when a show becomes so popular to look at taking it to a wider audience but nothing is confirmed yet," a BBC spokeswoman said.

Alan Davies stars as Jack the dog, observing Sarah (Claire Goose), her clothes, her little ways, all with the ironic devotion of a really clever pet. Sarah has a boyfriend, Adrian (Darren Boyd), on whom Jack is not at all keen. She also has an annoying mother (Deborah Norton). We can hear Jack's inner thoughts. No one else can. By Graeme Garden, from an original idea by the late Debbie Barham.