Dara O Briain

Video: Dara O'Briain explains why he's going stargazing

Dara O'Briain, explained to BBC Breakfast why he's now going stargazing with the physicist Professor Brian Cox.

Jonathan Ross to co-present Stargazing Live

Jonathan Ross will join Professor Brian Cox and comedian Dara O'Briain on BBC2's three-day astronomy event.

The stand-up show has reached its sixth series and kicks off with some trusty names. Mock the Week regular Sean Lock is the host and dishes out gags about the perils of people wanting to try on your glasses and - that old topic that just about anyone can relate to - having children. He introduces Liverpudlian John Bishop, whose own comedy series was shown on BBC One in the summer. Over the following five episodes we can expect to see Dara O Briain, Lenny Henry, Jon Richardson and Shappi Khorsandi among those taking the stage.

Series nine of the panel show hosted by Dara Ó Briain continues to offer amusing satire on the week's events, although topicality appears to be less important than good jokes if the popularity of the recycled earlier series on digital channel Dave is anything to go by. Ó Briain will be joined as usual by stand-ups Andy Parsons, Russell Howard and bishop's son Hugh Dennis.

With the departure of the notorious and sometimes offensive Frankie Boyle just a distant memory, the satirical panel show - a sort of fusion of Have I Got News for You and Whose Line Is It Anyway? - returns for its ninth series. With much of the show based on the week's news, there's no way of knowing what topics the panellists will be poking fun at, but Dara O Briain is back in the host's chair, presiding over Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard, Andy Parsons et al like a twinkly-eyed, indulgent uncle, while the irrelevant scoring system and weird mix of sit-down/stand-up rounds is intact. The show is undoubtedly a bit softer without Boyle but, along with BBC2's QI, it always manages to deliver intelligent comedy.

Irish comedian and Mock the Week presenter Dara O'Briain is one of the funniest stand ups around. This hour and a half-long gig at the Hammersmith Apollo marked the end of his 2008 sell-out tour. In it he makes jokes about everything from homeopathy to the home pregnancy test.

Interview: Dara O'Briain

Dara O'Briain tells The Daily Telegraph that Mock the Week doesn't discriminate against women.

For an extra point, why are panel games so popular?

Over the next two days, Serena Davies can find almost nothing to watch except comedy quiz shows - which, she says, are a peculiarly British pastime

Review of Dara O'Briain's Tough Gig

Dara O'Briain's Tough Gig is part of a series which has a refreshing, almost revolutionary twist: it's quite nice to people.