Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson admits he'd love to buy in to Rangers

Telly funnyman Clive Anderson is sure his Rangers-daft dad must be spinning in his grave at the financial disaster that is Ibrox.

The Guessing Game with Clive Anderson

Wednesday at 14:05 sees the start of a brand new six-part comedy panel show called The Guessing Game. Clive Anderson presents the programme and he's joined with some great guests like Rory Bremner, Phill Jupitus and Zoe Lyons.

Frank Carson: may he RIP

Even Clive Anderson couldn't get a word in edgeways when the Belfast-born comedian was a guest on his show. Bruce Dessau looks back at the much-missed motormouth's career.

Mongrels was one of my favourite shows from last year. Mind you, I'm a sucker for just about anything anthropomorphic. The fact that this and Radio 4 comedy Warhorses of Letters is on at the same time's made me a rather happy man this past week...

This show, often viewed as an animal puppet version of Family Guy, is always enjoyable to a certain degree. It's full of jokes, most of which seem to work, both in the main dialogue and the cutaway scenes. The characters are entertaining, from metrosexual fox Nelson (Rufus Jones) to it-bitch Destiny (Lucy Montgomery), to the f***ing foul-mouthed fox Vince (Paul Kaye).

The second series started with a double bill - which to me felt wrong, primarily because the second episode was a "Horror special" which really should have gone out on Halloween. What on Earth the BBC Three schedulers were thinking of I have no idea.

Still, both episodes were entertaining, with their jokes and musical numbers, especially with a guest appearance from Richard O'Brien as a zombie dog singing a Rocky Horror Show-style love song. The one problem I have with Mongrels is that because it's on BBC Three, it has a very BBC Three idea of what a celebrity is. For example: Clive Anderson - great. Ainsley Harriott - could be worse. Jeff Brazier - never heard of him. Danny Dyer - oh f*** off (as Vince might say).

Still, this is good show on the whole. Certainly one of the better comedies on BBC Three, which probably means it'll be axed...

So it was back to the kitchen for No Angel by Andy Lynch, on Radio 2's Comedy Showcase. Martine McCutcheon played a TV producer, trying to get ahead while coping with her ghastly star (Clive Anderson). She keeps meeting a disreputable man with a heavy Liverpool accent (Ricky Tomlinson). Is he stalking her? Could he be her father? No, he was her guardian angel. She took some convincing. I didn't. The title rather gave it away. But the real surprise here was how awful Clive Anderson was in a straight role. Perhaps he didn't want to pretend to be vain, bossy, unreasonable and demanding which was why he made his lines sound like plasterboard. McCutcheon and Tomlinson certainly did better with theirs.

No Angel was squarely in the tradition of Radio 4 sitcoms in that it was rubbish. Martine McCutcheon and Ricky Tomlinson were wasted on a promising set-up - she's a harassed radio chat-show flunkey, he's her guardian angel. When they were together you could forget the pedestrian script and the lack of laughs. When Clive Anderson was on, as the chat-show host, you couldn't. His scenes were excruciating: he needs to get back to the day jobs.

A new comedy by Andy Lynch with an astonishingly starry cast: Clive Anderson, Ricky Tomlinson, Martine McCutcheon, Andy Parsons and Emily Head (from TV's The Inbetweeners). And now the plot. Who is this hairy old Scouser who accosts a career-minded female producer in the street? Is he just a stalker? It's directed by Dirk Maggs, the master of feelgood surround-sound.

Chat-show hosts make great fodder for writers as it's so tempting to imagine huge egos going hand in hand with those large salaries. This comedy drama by Andy Lynch finds Clive Anderson taking a wry dig at his own CV as a self-obsessed frontman who's not impressed when his careerist producer gets herself a stalker. The all-star cast includes Martine McCutcheon, Ricky Tomlinson, Andy Parsons and Emily Head, from Channel 4''s The Inbetweeners, in her first radio role.

Five Minutes With: Clive Anderson

Broadcaster and barrister Clive Anderson tells Matt Stadlen about supporting two football teams, mixing law and comedy and how he coped when the Bee Gees walked out on an interview.