David Tennant

With talent shows once again likely to dominate the schedules until Christmas, this could be a very canny commission for C4. Not that there's a shortage of comedy panel-shows around, but self-professed 'comedy geek' David Tennant is an intriguing choice for host and a proven magnet for viewers (not for nothing has this been scheduled immediately after Doctor Who). Two teams, each made up of a gnarled veteran, an established pro and an up-and-comer, demonstrate their stand-up skills and 'knowledge of comedy' in a knockout tournament, with the winners awarded the titular prize. But who will be the tournament's Suarez, Zidane or bloke from Zaire who ran out of the wall to kick the ball away? If it's anything like the football version, expect dirty tactics, controversy and lingering feelings of disappointment and melancholy at its close.

More neatly observed, finely tuned comedies by Marcella Evaristi about modern dilemmas of shared parenting, starring Sarah Alexander as Mimi, the thrice-married mum, with Mark Bonnar as Dad (replacing David Tennant, who played him in the first series last year). Their two children are Tom (he'll be 11 now) and teenage Lucy, played by Finlay Christie and Phoebe Abbott (and very well too) about to get her mother's full attention in this first of six episodes. Marilyn Imrie directs, for independents Absolutely Productions. And there's more good news, in that there are six episodes, rather than the four of the first series. Make the most of them because big budget cuts seem to be digging into the schedule in ways that limit new programmes. Any day now across the whole schedule radio is repeating many more programmes than it once did. Sometimes that's not a bad thing, one person's repeat being another person's first hearing. But as Radio 4, in particular, produces more new programmes across a greater variety of genres than other networks, it is bound to restrict innovation and is already affecting how digital Radio 4 can use more recent programmes.

I never feel comfortable when fact is mixed with fiction. I spend the whole time trying to figure out what's real and what's made up and usually end up vaguely irritated if it's not clear which is which. And then, I usually say to myself, the truth is usually more interesting anyway, so why bother?

I had high hopes that Believe It!, the purported autobiography of the actor Richard Wilson, written by Jon Canter, might up-end my preconceptions. The programme felt a bit like an episode of The Unbelievable Truth, picking out factual nuggets from the welter of fiction: was he mates with George Best? Was his first acting role in Oh! What a Lovely War!, during the shooting of which he drove an apparently legless Lord Olivier back home to Brighton? And what about Mad Great-Uncle Hamish?

There were some good lines (I liked Hamish's advice - "never trust a man who doesn't drink, for he's walking around with truths inside him that he never lets oot"), and I laughed more than is usual with Radio 4 comedy. But I was troubled: the bit about him studying electrical engineering, for example, sounded true, though it seems his pre-thespian career was spent as a lab technician. But unless there's a killer joke in there somewhere, which there wasn't, why make it up?

As for Hamish (wonderfully played in the dramatised bits by John Sessions), I'm guessing he's not real, but I found myself wishing he'd existed. As he told the young Richard (played by David Tennant): "Do you want to have an exciting life and forget most of it or a blameless life and remember every second?"

Richard Wilson, actor, director and possibly the nation's favourite fictional grouse, got so fed up with being greeted with his One Foot in the Grave TV catchline "I don't believe it!" that he's now been persuaded to launch his "radiography". It's a heady mix of the actual with the fictional, written by Jon Canter, starring Wilson and a starry roster of support which includes John Sessions, David Tennant and Arabella Weir. Unpick the facts (Wilson is unmarried, private, passionate about theatre, politics and Manchester United) from the mischievous fantasies.

Believe It! review

This is a brilliantly produced comedy, highlighted by the fact David Tennant plays only a bit part.

But does he mean it? He turns his Victor Meldrew catchphrase "I don't believe it!" on its head in his four-part "celebrity radiography" Believe It!, in which he laces alleged reminiscences with unlikely tales and a certain surreal logic.

Playing himself - with some assistance from his "ghost writer" Jon Canter and actors including David Tennant and John Sessions - Wilson claims that he never drank because a traumatic childhood experience suggested that alcohol was indelibly associated with truth and death. "What could be more scary?"

These picaresque memoirs also reveal how Wilson caused George Best to miss a penalty, and why a car journey with Sir Laurence Olivier ensured that his confirmed tipple would be elderflower cordial ... Or so he says.

David Tennant stars in Jonathan Ross's new comic

Doctor Who star David Tennant has landed another major sci-fi role - as a Simon Cowell-style evil genius in Jonathan Ross's latest comic book.

Review: The Decoy Bride

A Hollywood star (Alice Eve) attempts to marry her writer fiancé (David Tennant) away from the prying eyes of the world's press in this less-than-original romantic comedy.

This romantic screwball comedy, set on the mythical Scottish island of Hegg, is clearly intended to evoke memories of Whisky Galore!, I Know Where I'm Going and even Local Hero.

Sadly, the visual magic simply isn't there (perhaps because the film was largely shot on the Isle of Man) and the sub-Ealing eccentricity of the locals seems just a little too forced. Kelly Macdonald is appealing as local lass Katie, a Bridget Jones-like mac-singleton returning to the island after her most recent relationship breaks up.

Here, she meets an arrogant author, James (David Tennant), who is trying to marry Hollywood star Lara Tyler (Alice Eve) away from the prying eyes of the world's media. Tennant does his best in a strangely written role requiring him to be supercilious and charming at the same time. It's a trick that even Cary Grant in his prime would have struggled to pull off.