Cher Lloyd

Last year's specstacular saw Alan do impressions taking the mickey out of easy targets Cher Lloyd, the Beckhams and Wills and Kate.

This year he'll be getting up to more festive fooling around, party games and sketches with the help of his guest mates.

Former Radio 2 pal Melanie Sykes, Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall, Christine Bleakley, Gok Wan and Bruno Mars join in the New Year fun.

Then there's Rylan Clark - one of the few guests who can make Alan look butch by comparison.

The line-up might not be as A-list as Graham Norton's, but this is exactly the kind of party you'd want to be invited to.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 31st December 2012

Radio 2's Hot Gossip is a panel show hosted by Claudia Winkleman about celebrity tittle-tattle, but not in the shameless we-don't-care-if-you-think-we're-shallow sense. It is, in fact, propelled by shame.

Winkleman's job is to ask questions about the latest goings-on among the rich and famous to a gaggle of publicity-hungry comics who then spew damning one-liners about said celebrities whom they deem to be lower down the food chain than they are. It's less a case of scraping the barrel than tipping it sideways to see what is lurking beneath it. This explains why Winkleman shrieks and whoops at her guests' every utterance as if living in fear that a nanosecond of silence will bring the audience to their senses and prompt a stampede for the exit.

All on the programme seem to think they are above discussing the antics of bed-hopping footballers or reality television alumni, despite the fact that this is exactly what they have signed up for. This week, Jason Byrne was quizzed about a star of the TV series The Only Way Is Essex; he pleaded ignorance both of the show and its well-known acronym TOWIE, which he said he had assumed was "some sort of slang for a tramp". In another instance, Winkleman puzzled over the identity of the former X Factor singer Cher Lloyd. "Wasn't she in the singing thing?" she asked, making out as if she spends her Saturday nights working through her Tarkovsky collection. She wasn't fooling anyone.

Hot Gossip is for people who claim to loathe Hello! magazine, but make weekly dentist appointments so that they can inhale its contents in the waiting room. Why it exists remains a mystery. If the format seems tired, the people who appear on it sound positively knackered, their exhaustion presumably compounded by their round-the-clock schedule of appearances on identikit BBC panel shows.

Fiona Sturges, The Independent, 19th January 2012

Rufus Hound's rant on Xtra Factor becomes online hit

X Factor star Cher Lloyd was reduced to hysterical laughter as comedian Rufus Hound slammed Kelly Rowland in a hilarious rant on last night's Xtra Factor.

Daniella Graham, Metro, 31st October 2011