Dara O Briain

It's been scientifically proven that it's impossible to watch this without feeling at least 42% happier than before it started. True or false? Who cares.

What is absolutely true is that this is the seventh series of the rib-tickling Friday night favourite where team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack do such sterling work each week to keep the old North-South rivalry stoked up.

Rob Brydon will be in the presenter's chair once again and fibbing for all they're worth tonight (or are they?) will be comedian and occasional maths guru Dara O Briain, Rhod Gilbert, Vernon Kay - who claims that he once nearly caused a gas explosion while in a banana packing factory - and Denise van Outen, who has a confession to make about her bottom for viewers tonight. You can feel David Mitchell blushing behind his beard already.

It's a good job this goes out before the watershed, or things could get out of hand.

The topical comedy panel quiz returns after its summer break. Joining host Dara O Briain and regulars Hugh Dennis, Andy Parsons and Chris Addison are guests Greg Davies, Andi Osho and Stewart Francis - the laconic Canadian one-liner specialist who won the award for best joke at this year'' Edinburgh Fringe Festival with his gag about Posh and Becks giving children a bad name.

This topical panel show can always be guaranteed to provide a few belly laughs.

And unlike Have I Got News for You, it doesn't matter if you've been hiding under a rock for the past week and haven't got a clue what's been going on in the world.

The topical bit is used loosely. Instead it's more an excuse for stand-up comedians to show their wares, with Dara O Briain at the helm.

Joining show regulars Hugh Dennis, Andy Parsons and Chris Addison is my own personal favourite stand-up, Micky Flanagan, up-and-coming comic Nathan Caton and Canada's king of the one-liners Stewart Francis (if you love your comedy, you'll recognise him from an episode of Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow - he was the guy who opened with: "Don't worry, I haven't heard of you either").

Considering the show's format, which is just made for killer one-liners, tonight's episode promises to be even funnier than normal.

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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.

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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.

Tonight's TV: Nerdstock: 9 Lessons And Carols For Godless People

He might be a friend of Ricky Gervais and a radio panel game regular, but Robin Ince isn't your average stand-up. He also runs a comedy institution called The Book Club, which involves him reading aloud from random second-hand tomes, and is a vocal atheist who curates gigs themed around science, Darwin and rationalism. This is a TV version of his festive variety show 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People, which combines gags from Dara O'Briain, Al Murray, Shappi Khorsandi and Chris Addison with music, plus more intellectual fare from scientists and writers - the movement's daddy, Richard Dawkins, among them. Stimulating stuff.