Andi Osho

Video: Andi Osho at The Comedy Store

Andi Osho, winner of the 2007 Nivea Funny Women award, waxes lyrical about the worst places in Britain, trying to get adopted and the funny noises we made as kids.

Edinburgh Interview: Andi Osho

Patrick Kielty MCs more topical, edgy humour tonight from Rich Hall, Jack Whitehall, Andi Osho and Kevin Bridges. And another masochistic celebrity guest braves The Chair - the 21st century equivalent of the stocks. Except, instead of being pelted with rotten fruit and veg, they're subjected to a tsunami of verbal abuse that stops just short of having their head pushed down the toilet.

This week it's Peter Shilton, who'll be hoping for an easier ride than Lembit Opik got last week. Don't be fooled by Kielty's blandly angelic appearance. This isn't the same Patrick Kielty who fronted Fame Academy, Love Island and The National Lottery's Big Ticket. The Patrick Kielty on this show is his ruder, cruder and utterly merciless identical evil twin.

Good to see more topical stand-up on telly... this time Patrick Kielty is at the helm, with a regular team of stand-ups, including veteran Rich Hall plus rising stars Jack Whitehall, Andi Osho and Kevin Bridges, riffing off the week's news and subjecting celebrity guests to a roasting in front of a live audience at Koko in Camden. Hopefully the late-night slot means no taboo is left untouched.

Forget picture rounds, point scoring and clever puns - this blisteringly funny comedy goes straight for the jugular with a team of stand-ups letting rip on the news and sailing as close to the wind as the lawyers allow.

The most extraordinary segment sees host Patrick Kielty verbally cremating Lembit Opik, who is this week's guest in a spot called 'The Chair'.

For what must be the longest two minutes in Opik's life he's abused by Kielty, who probably can't believe he's not being hit. Opik meekly takes it but then 'The Chair' is the only seat he's likely to be offered for the forseeable.

Also appearing are Jack Whitehall, Rich Hall, Kevin Bridges, Andi Osho and Brendon Burns. On the strength of this first show, SUFTW makes HIGNFY look like a doddery old uncle.

A comedy short from up-and-coming stand-up Andi Osho. Osho plumbs her native Stratford for comic fodder. Definitely one to watch.

Recorded before a live audience on the day of its broadcast, the quality of topical comedy show Tonightly is pretty much dependent on how inspired the writers felt when they got up that morning.

Possibly because it is such a bold venture, I have a lot of time for Tonightly. The comedy sketches lean towards the infantile rather than the satirical and are tediously dependent on profanity, but they are carried by the brash enthusiasm of their performers. Showbiz correspondent Ollie Roberts' cut and paste fake interviews may just be a repetition of the same joke, but it is a joke I always laugh at.

However, the show's greatest strengths lie in host Jason Manford and sidekick Andi Osho. Affable and unflappable, the pair exude confidence without ever coming over as smug. Something the presenters of The Eleven O'Clock Show never came close to achieving.

The bosses at Channel 4 took an enormous risk with this stab at a British Daily Show when they chose Jason Manford to front it. To give him such a responsibility when we are all still getting used to him, seems a far reaching step for those in the board room and not to mention the comedian himself.

At first, I had mixed feelings. Manford is a confident host who has clearly been ready to front a show for some time, and confidence is certainly needed when delivering long monologues to camera as he is required to do for much of the first half of the show.

And while co-presenter Andi Osho's little ad-libbed asides were funny, it seems she needs to have a bit more faith in herself.

In an era of copy-cat shows and more food and lifestyle shows than anyone could possible keep up with, any channel and production team attempting a new format is absolutely to be applauded.

And a nightly comedy show looking at the news, recorded a few hours before transmission, is a rare beast indeed here in the UK.

Tonightly, which began a daily run on Friday, is the distant descendant of The 11 O'Clock Show, not much valued at the time but now hailed for giving early breaks to Ricky Gervais, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mackenzie Crook.

I tried, believe me, but I could not see any of this sample of what C4 is calling "Generation Next" entering their league. The most obvious, if minor, talent is its northern anchorman, Jason Manford, who sits behind a desk betraying amusement at his own monologue and congratulating his sidekick, Andi Osho, on her supposedly "great work, great work". The first edition was topical: much obsessed with gas bills and the acquittal of Barry George, whom Manford weirdly suggested would not be in a good mood.

Tonightly lacked edge and it lacked laughs. It has three weeks to find bothly.