Alison Graham

So this is it. The end. The final curtain. The last ever Friday Night with Jonathan Ross after nearly ten years on BBC1. Ross was always an acquired taste; his blokey, jokey style was too smut-centric for some, while others thought him edgy and funny. None of that matters now, of course. Ross was all too willing to assist in the implosion of his BBC career when he and Russell Brand Went Too Far and left mucky messages on a blameless Andrew Sachs's answering machine during Brand's Radio 2 show. The reaction was ridiculously overblown - the sky didn't fall in - but it was the kind of national convulsion that could end only, eventually, with Ross's departure. Tonight's final guests are David Beckham, Jackie Chan, Mickey Rourke and Roxy Music.

Jonathan Ross rounds off his BBC career this week with his final chat show on Friday, and this love-letter to comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Ross, a devotee of the pair's sardonic, surreal sketches, tells us that Pete and Dud were his first TV comedy love. Their series Not Only... but Also ran on BBC2 between 1965 and 1970. It will surprise no one to learn that the BBC subsequently wiped the tapes of many of its 23 episodes, some of which survive only in script form. Which is where we reach the chancy bit of Pete and Dud: the Lost Sketches. Ross's guests - including Alistair McGowan, Angus Deayton and Hugh Dennis - gather to re-create some of these vanished comedy gems. I hope it works.

I know nothing could possibly endear Brand to the thousands of listeners appalled by the whole tawdry Andrew Sachs/Jonathan Ross farrago. Which is a shame. Of course it's his own fault, but the whole silly mess eclipsed Brand's gifts as a highly imaginative stand-up who's fantastically well read, with a true love of the myriad minor beauties of the English language. He's also carving himself a Hollywood career and his new film, Get Him to the Greek, has just been released, which is presumably why Channel 4 is showing this not terribly new gig, recorded at the monstrous O2 Arena in London last year. The title is the giveaway as Brand uses the gig to examine his risky exploits, including "Sachsgate" and his, ahem, controversial hosting of the 2008 MTV Music Awards.

This is worth watching for curiosity value alone, as the publicity shy Katie Price and her new husband, former cross-dressing cage fighter Alex Reid, pitch up on Alan Carr's couch for their first TV interview as a married couple. Obviously they have much to plug, including Price's "latest novel" Paradise. "Latest novel" is a shocking phrase when you consider that as this is her latest novel, there must have been others. Also appearing are James Corden, who will bore on about the World Cup, and Latino cutie Enrique Iglesias.

He's an acquired taste, but there's something so dangerously odd about alleged hamster-diner Freddie Starr that makes him irresistible. He's outrageous, out of control and downright weird. The fact that he's impossible to like somehow makes him more appealing, or appalling, as this 1996 show demonstrates. There's nothing warm and fuzzy about Starr; he radiates barely suppressed anger. Yet he can be inspired and hilarious, even if you really don't want to laugh. There's plenty of madness here, though none of it is quite as hilarious as the celeb-studded audience seems to think it is, judging by the shots of shrieking Windsor Davies, Gareth Hunt and Carol Smillie. As a comedy museum piece, though, it's worth a look.

Radio Times article: Outnumbered

Sitcoms about families tend to be teeth-strippingly awful, brain-achingly twee affairs - see My Family and the pitiful Life of Riley. But the brilliant Outnumbered has managed to usurp the whole genre.

It's Friday the 13th and superstitious Karen refuses to go to school in case something bad happens. She might, she insists, get mauled by a bear. Ben, meanwhile, asks his hungover father, "Dad, what's the point of living?" So just another day in their household. It's probably heresy to say so, but the series is starting to feel just that little bit predictable. But then complaining is churlish when it's given us Ramona Marquez (Karen), the best female comedian currently on the telly.

There's a battle between the sexes raging, sparked by Karen's ambition to be an astronaut. Her tiny sexist brother, Ben, dismisses this out of hand on the grounds that "girls can't throw". This makes sense to him, even if it baffles everyone else. But the pair move on to safer territory when Pete lets slip that he has a hospital appointment for a colonoscopy. Karen is remorseless about how anything can photograph her dad's insides until Pete is forced to reveal the truth. Cue much speculation about "midget doctors". It's another painfully funny episode that's packed with zinging lines from the kids and acute observations about the tiny pitfalls of a generally happy suburban family life - like not writing engagements on the calendar, and how to deal with a pompous windbag neighbour (a great cameo from The Thick of It's Alex Macqueen).

Jonathan Ross is on his way out, but all hail Graham Norton, whose chat show is breezy, silly and a perfect nightcap at the end of the first day of the working week. I particularly like the way all of his guests end up on the sofa together, rather than each scurrying off to the green room after their moments in the spotlight to giggle self-consciously while everyone else has their turn. Some of the best bits of the last series involved high jinks between the stars, like the hopelessly solipsistic Katie Price coming under the withering gaze of a mischievous Jo Brand. Or model/actress Lily Cole looking lost as she droned on about her new film, while Sue Perkins and Isabella Rossellini were there just to enjoy themselves. Tonight's guests Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant should be good value as they discuss their new film Cemetery Junction. They'll be joined by actress Christina Ricci, and there's music from Pixie Lott.

You might remember a great slab of television from 2007 called The 100 Greatest Stand-Ups. This is an updated and revised version of that particular epic; four hours devoted to one long list, padded with clips and interviews. The winner last time was Billy Connolly, closely followed by Peter Kay and Eddie Izzard. But could Izzard's recent successful tour and his staggering Sport Relief marathons hike him up to the number one slot? Or will Michael McIntyre, who wasn't even on the 2007 list, surprise everyone? The answer lies in the hands of the voting public.