Dave Allen (I)

IRA target? No, Dave Allen was our favourite comedian

Ahead of a Dave Allen biopic, fans - including a former Irish activist - tell Chris Harvey why they loved his jokes.

Aidan Gillen reveals all about playing Dave Allen

With his wry lampooning of marriage and religion - including his trademark sign-off catchphrase, "May your god go with you" - Dave Allen was a well-loved and ground-breaking TV comedian.

Dave Allen was truly ahead of his time

Dave Allen's comments on the Church may have shocked some, but he stands as one of the greats of Irish comedy. Ellie O'Byrne talks to Bryan Murray about a man who found fame as an exile.

David Mills interview

Focus people! David Mills returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with brand new, razor sharp rants delivered with his signature cocktail swagger and his biting, acerbic wit. Martin Walker attempts to persuade this cross between, Dave Allen and Larry Grayson, not to quit comedy and take up alternative dance.

Radio Times review

"Over the years that I've come to know the members of this platoon, I've grown quite fond of them, but I can't help feeling sometimes that I'm in charge of a bunch of idiots." It's not often that Captain Mainwaring is quite so scathing about his platoon, but he's prompted by a classic piece of long-windedness from leering loon Private Frazer. It's a towering moment in the midst of some lightweight field-exercise shenanigans, but you'll enjoy the effete expression from Wilson tanning his face while his captain blethers on, and another brief but heavenly example of under-the-influence acting from Arthur Lowe.

Fans of 70s comedy will enjoy the sight of Dave Allen stooge Michael Sharvell-Martin as the Lieutenant.

Comedy review: Fern Brady & Stuart Mitchell, Glasgow

Stuart Mitchell has a wince-inducing medical history that most comics would give their right arm for, even if he's only missing a few finger tips. Denied his Unique Selling Point in comedy lore by Dave Allen's legendary missing digit, he's young to have a colonoscopy routine too, usually a rite of passage for middle-aged comics.

10 of Dave Allen's funniest jokes

As BBC Two celebrate the Irish comedian with a night of special programming, we look back at some of his best moments.

Jo Caulfield: My comedy is therapeutic

Angst, relationships and Dave Allen inspire Jo Caulfield's stand-up.

In the '70s, the parish vicar was a staple sitcom character. Steptoe & Son would regularly be thrown into paroxysms of nervous guilt by the prospect of the local god-botherer coming round to tea, while Terry & June were forever tying themselves into unlikely knots in the run-up to a dinner party with the Reverend Austin Doyle (note to younger readers: Terry & June was like Him & Her with milky tea and stairlifts).

Now we get to find out why these men of the cloth were in such demand at social functions with the baldly titled Some Vicars With Jokes, a half hour of genial clerics cracking wise and acting the goat. And that's pretty much all there is to tell. The wisecracks themselves are, shall we say, of a certain vintage, and all sound as if they've been ripped from the Dave Allen jokebook, but there are at least couple you might find yourself slipping into your own repertoire.

The decision to place the drollery against a flat, putty-coloured, computer generated backdrop is rather offputting, but the saintly stand-ups are good enough company to give this a look. Pick of the bunch is Reverend Paul Turp of St Leonard's in Shoreditch who comes across like a depressive Micky Flanagan by way of Harold Pinter.