Ed Byrne

Amnesty Secret Comedy Podcast returns for 2013

Amnesty's Secret Comedy Podcast is back at this year's Edinburgh festival, and will be winging your way throughout August. To whet your appetite, here are some of the best bits from 2012 along with interviews and stand-up from some of the guests lined up for this year, including: Julian Clary, Al Murray, Lee Mack, Jenny Eclair, Ed Byrne, Jo Caulfield, Alan Davies and more.

Julian Clary joins Amnesty comedy line-up in Edinburgh

Julian Clary (in Edinburgh exclusively for Amnesty) joins Ed Byrne, Alan Davies, Jo Caulfield and other top secret names to host the podcast shows that will feature the best comedy and the biggest names at this year's fringe.

Daniel Kitson signed up for Paul Sinha's anti-violence gig

Daniel Kitson, Mark Watson and Ed Byrne are all signed up for a special anti-violence gig.

Brick Lane Comedy Festival announced

Ed Byrne, Al Murray, Adam Buxton and Alan Davies have been signed up to headline the inaugural Brick Lane Comedy Festival.

Top 20 comedy shows in London - May

Featuring Eddie Izzard, Jack Dee, Micky Flanagan, Omid Djalili, Ed Byrne, a gig on a ship, charity fundraisers, the Funny Side, Invisible Dot, the Store and loads more.

Interview: Ed Byrne and his wife Claire Walker

How comedian Ed Byrne and his wife, comedy PR woman Claire Walker, laugh things off.

Adam Buxton, Ed Byrne, Stewart Lee for Union Chapel

Stewart Lee, Ed Byrne, Mark Thomas and Adam Buxton are heading to Islington's Union Chapel over the next few months as The Invisible Dot launches its spring season of comedy.

John Prescott shifts his buttocks around in an armchair. 'So the doctor asks me: "What do you mean you want a flu jab in your left arm AND your right arm?". "Well, why do you think they call me 'two jabs'?".' Such is the quality of gags in this joke-based half-hour presented by John Bishop.

This 'show that always makes you laugh' goes for the funny bone by combining snippets of stand-up from the likes of Jason Manford and Ed Byrne with pre-recorded Christmas cracker-worthy contributions from D-lebrities and members of the public. The stand-up is far and away the highlight in comparison to the cast of Chingford health instructors, Wiltshire factory workers and Heather from EastEnders reeling off funnies that range from the bizarre to the hackneyed.

Entertaining enough, but could probably have done without the to-camera spots from a curiously vacant Bishop.

Great British Bake Off Comic Relief special guests

Warwick Davis, Bob Mortimer, Jo Brand Stephen K Amos, Ed Byrne and Watson & Oliver will take part in the Great British Bake Off specials for Comic Relief.

Britain's Oldest Stand-Up is an irresistibly charming documentary chronicling 90 year-old Jack Woodward's return to the stage after an absence of nearly half a century. The venue he has his heart set on is the Hammersmith Apollo in London, where he has admired the young upstart Michael McIntyre perform on the BBC's Live at the Apollo show.

And guess what? He lands a five-minute gig there as the warm-up for Ed Byrne. Armed with some new material supplied by comedy writer Les Keen, Jack heads for his date with destiny.

Nervous? Not a bit of it. Jack is excited at the prospect of playing to a 3,000-strong London audience, who hold no terrors for a comic who has played working men's clubs in Gateshead where hecklers threw coal.

"I heard you clapping and got here as quick as I could," is Woodward's opening line, and the laughs just keep coming. Turns out he's a pretty good comic.

My advice to anyone thinking of booking him is - don't delay.