Chris Packham

Jim Moir, Nancy Sorrell, Chris Packham and the fine art of birdwatching

The artist formerly known as Vic Reeves gets out his easel and brushes in a new TV show with wife Nancy Sorrell, heading out into nature to paint the birds, alongside naturalist Chris Packham.

Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry and Aisling Bea urge UK banks to stop financing fossil fuels

Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry and Aisling Bea are among celebrities calling on the five of the UK's biggest High Street banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coal projects.

Crusading naturalist Chris Packham gets a rare chance to enjoy himself in another frolicsome edition of Hill's comedy panel show. Watch the nation's favourite grebe-fancier bag the battiest questions and pitch into a mud fight between the Krankies, Pam St Clement, Chelsee Healey and the host.

This is Sarah Millican's first steps into a television series of her own, after appearing on nearly every panel show under the sun!

There have been complaints from some quarters that Sarah Millican's possibly the most overexposed comedian currently around. I personally don't think that's the case. Yes, she appears on a lot of panel shows, but she always the guest - she doesn't host any or appear as a team captain, unlike David Mitchell for example.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme is part stand-up, part talk show. Each show covers two different television genres, this week being "animals" and "dating", with the guidance of a guest expert (Chris Packham and Tracey Cox respectively). It has to be said that she seemed to look a bit uncomfortable dealing with this format and perhaps the given material, but I don't doubt she'll soon cope with it as the series goes along.

Millican is certainly funny and the show is very good, but it does have one or two problems, namely with video cameras. There's annoying gimmickry with the "Millicam" in which a video camera is sent into the studio audience and certain people answer Millican's questions. The main problem, though, is that they also filmed the audience members holding the Millicam, so the Millicam instantly becomes redundant...

Then there was Sarah's guest interview with her own father Phillip, during which she wore a silly headcam, which gets one laugh at the beginning but then of course just becomes rather tiresome.

However, other than those minor issues, I'd recommend you giving The Sarah Millican Television Programme a viewing.

No question, Sarah Millican is an excellent, deservedly award-winning stand-up.

And what does TV like to do with an excellent, deservedly award-winning stand-up?

Yep, it likes to give them their own chat show.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme starts tonight at 10pm on BBC2, with guests including Chris Packham and Tracey Cox (oh behave).

Like most of her material, Sarah Millican's new series doesn't exactly push boundaries; although putting her on the sofa and her guests behind the desk is an intriguing if unexplained inversion of chat-show tradition. But it's a perfectly amiable half-hour of observational comedy, this week built around the TV genres of dating shows and wildlife docs. Guests Chris Packham and Tracey Cox are decent if unadventurous choices and play along gamely. But the 'Millicam' is a pun in need of a purpose, a webcam chat with her dad is an indulgence and an ineptly staged dating masterclass sends the show out on a low after a strong opening. Even so, if format and host can settle down and Millican can strike the right balance, there's potential here.

There aren't many comedians who could ask their studio ­audience which wild animal they'd most like to have sex with and make it sound cuddly rather than crude, but Geordie comic Sarah Millican is one of them.

You can learn comedy timing or how to write a great gag - and she's an expert at both - but you can't learn warmth.

You've either got it or you haven't, and she is a comedy hot-water bottle.

Millican's series is a mixture of chat and comedy and, while that format might invite comparison with Mrs Merton, her guests aren't just there to be mocked.

Sarah becomes the butt of jokes, but she gets maximum points for asking Chris Packham: "Why do you do Springwatch every year? Isn't it the same?"

Also on tonight's show are sexpert Tracey Cox and Sarah's dad Philip, who shares his own no-nonsense philosophy.

I laughed many, many times during The Sarah Millican Television Programme (BBC2). At first glance, Millican's is a warm, unthreatening world of gentle comedy about nanas, nighties and nature programmes but, in fact, she's an iron fist in a Marigold glove. Her deadpan asides and sudden glances to camera have a touch of Eric Morecambe and her sudden shut-downs ("You've got to be tolerant of all life," says Chris Packham. "No," she replies simply) are things of beauty impossible to reproduce in print. The format's not right yet, but once it is, hopefully television will become Millican's world and we can live in it.