Christopher Stevens

Staged review

How lockdown locks turned an ex-Doctor Who into Joan of Arc.

Review - Comedians: Home Alone

I suppose a new generation of TV editors thinks this is how telly must work. They never watched it when they were growing up, of course, because they were glued to their phones.

The First Team review

The First Team just isn't ready for the big time. Back to the training ground.

Britain's Greatest Comedy Character review

Chairperson Sally Phillips, best-known as Miranda Hart's sidekick, set the tone at the start when she bemoaned the fact that most of the candidates were male and white -- as if what every sitcom needs to make it funny is a lot more political correctness. It's a good job that old bigot Alf Garnett wasn't in the running, or Sally might have felt a right silly moo.

What's The Matter With Tony Slattery? review

Watching his evasions as he struggled to disguise the extent of his drinking was agony. He and Mark were brave to make the film. May it help others who see it.

Looking back at the life of Tim Brooke-Taylor

Tim Brooke-Taylor was a patriot right down to his red, white and blue underpants.

Red Dwarf review

Red Dwarf (Dave), the sci-fi sitcom that's been running almost since the ­beginning of the universe, switched format to record a feature-length episode, a full two hours. Even Dad's Army couldn't ­manage that. And it was funny. Not just catchphrase funny, more than simply in-joke, fan-favourite funny, but loaded with some great gags.

Maxxx review

O-T Fagbenle delivered a hilarious send-up of the bloated celebrity ego in Maxxx (E4), the sitcom he wrote and stars in, about a washed-up boy band singer trying to revive his career after years of self-indulgent excess.

He's how Eddie Large gave Britain a helping of laughter

The day Spike Milligan died, motormouth comedian [pEddie Large] was waiting for a heart transplant.

Comedian Jon Richardson and his wife Lucy are doing their darndest to squeeze entertainment out of domestic life with their three-year-old daughter in the Yorkshire market town of Hebden Bridge.

Their mock reality-show Meet The Richardsons (Dave) started last month, pretending to be a fly-on-the-lounge-wall show where Jon and Lucy sat on their sofa and bickered about their marriage.

If they'd stuck with that concept, it might have worked better: the couple are obviously close but one can't say a word without rubbing the other up the wrong way.

Lucy spent several minutes criticising her husband for the way he says 'hello'.

And millions of wives will sympathise with her frustration that Jon can go into rhapsodies about a flash of football skill in a Sky Sports game, but fails to notice when she's spent an hour doing her face and make-up before a night out: 'You just say: "Come on then, let's go."'

But the show falls apart when it descends to scripted hijinks. Jon got stuck on the stairs moving a sofa and had to phone for help ... even though the camera crew was in the house. Are they professionally bound never to intervene, like wildlife photographers?

Jason Donovan made a cameo appearance as a guest at a celebrity Halloween party, sending himself up rotten when Lucy mistook him for Bros.

He was great in Dial M For Middlesbrough last year, too. Top chap.