Ed Byrne

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.

Britain's Oldest Stand Up (More4) was a slight, sweet film by Clair Titley, in the new First Cut series, about her uncle Jack Woodward. He is a 90-year-old Chelsea Pensioner who harbours a dream of resurrecting the comedy act he used to perform in the 50s and 60s and - one of his favourite pastimes being to watch the new bloods plying their trade on the television show Live at the Apollo every Friday night - playing the Hammersmith venue himself. "I've took a fancy to it!" he exclaimed, in a burry, rural West Country accent that must itself be disappearing as fast as any pasture land down there. "I can't explain it - it's just there!"

Thanks to comedy writer Les Keen, who wrote him some new material to get him up to the mark, comedian Ed Byrne, who agreed to let Jack be his warm-up man (and gently warmed up the audience himself for Jack before he came on stage) and some giant prompt cards, he did it. There wasn't much else to the story but the rare sight of a nonagenarian, thrice-married, triple-bypassed (last year) incurable optimist had a charm all of its own.