Bill Bailey (I)

Review - Bill Bailey, Limboland

I thought Bill Bailey had had a blip, personally, his previous few shows being more like BB by numbers, so I wasn't sure what to expect from Limboland. But by all accounts it is vintage Bill Bailey.

Bill Bailey tour bus thief Francis Whittaker jailed

Whittaker was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to burglary and two charges of vehicle theft.

Opinion: comedy gigs of the year 2015

Featuring Katherine Ryan, Bryony Kimmings, Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse, Rob Delaney, Sam Simmons, Simon Amstell, Dara O Briain, Daniel Kitson, Bill Bailey and Joseph Morpurgo.

Comedy gigs of the year 2015

Featuring Rob Delaney, Tommy Tiernan, Frankie Boyle, Daniel Kitson, Sam Simmons, Bill Bailey, Stewart Lee, Weird Al Yankovic, Richard Gadd and Spencer Jones.

Bill Bailey to headline Wychwood Festival 2016

Bill Bailey will headline the Sunday at next year's family-friendly Wychwood Festival.

Radio Times review

Before I started watching this I thought, "I wonder if they'll add some sleigh bells over the thrashy theme music" and I'm delighted to say they have. There's also a spangly snowflake backdrop and several Christmas-themed claims/tales/festive fibs.

To wit, "These are two of the best gifts I was given last Christmas," announces David Mitchell, flourishing a top hat and magic wand and prompting all of us to try to picture what Christmas Day might be like at the Coren Mitchells.

But the best prop arrives when Bill Bailey introduces a pet bird called Jacob, that he claims he once smuggled into the cinema with him. The fact it's a cockatoo is heroically ignored, even by Lee Mack: no pre-watershed-unfriendly gags here (although why Mitchell's enthusiastic mime of church bell-ringing gets a laugh might take some explaining). Kelly Holmes, Jo Brand and Ruth Jones add to the mendacious merriment.

Radio Times review

Those QI elves have been busy. We learn that every episode of QI since the start has included a secret coded message that nobody has spotted. And that's not the only bauble: at the end, Stephen Fry gets a (literally) magical surprise gift and it brings such childish joy to his face, it feels like a proper Christmas moment.

Elsewhere, there's a hilarious ad lib from Johnny Vegas when a studio bulb blows, keyboard skills from Bill Bailey, and some improvising around that little-known (but genuine) musical, The Bathrooms Are Coming.

Review: Bill Bailey, Vaudeville Theatre

If there is a theme, it is to take enjoyment in the world around us.

Bill Bailey review

Ever fancied an evening of surreal family holiday tales and a medley of ABBA through the lens of death metal?

Bill Bailey review - back to his blithe best

From riffs on Labour's 'experimental' period to a German-language heavy-metal Waterloo, Bailey's ticklish joy in the trivial delights a warm crowd.