Evan Davis

Radio Times review

The Damage Limitation Team meets to discuss a troubling development: rumours that Newsnight presenter Evan Davis is to compete in the next series of Strictly. We're used to the way these meetings involve looping discussions that resolve nothing, but John Morton's riffs on corporate-speak will ring bells in many a workplace.

A slight shame, then, that not much develops in this episode, beyond a new Pilates initiative from the DG and speculation about who will become the new Head of Better. Could it be stony-faced exec Anna Rampton? Meanwhile, joyously inept PA Will ("Yeah, no worries, yeah. Cool...") is struggling with his Syncapatico software.

Newsnight's Evan Davis to cameo on W1A

Evan Davis has been spotted shooting a cameo for the second series of W1A.

It's hard to believe that Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse once danced barefoot on comedy's cutting edge because the third series of Harry & Paul (BBC2) feels wearily old hat. Creating new sketches about Mr Bean and The Beatles - where are we, 1982? - make Nationwide's embarrassing Little Britain ad campaign seem cool and contemporary - and are a sure sign that the well of inspiration was running dry.

If it wasn't for the Dragons' Den spoof that topped and tailed the show - easily the best thing in it - the whole thing would have felt like a repeat that had been transmitted by mistake. But when a boss-eyed Evan Davis impression is the best laugh, you know you're in trouble. Armstrong & Miller cover this kind of territory - but they do it a whole lot better.

The quartet of R4 presenters - Evan Davis, Libby Purves, Peter White and Laurie Taylor - who walked the comedy plank for Red Nose Day in Stand-Up For Comic Relief didn't exactly bring the house down.

In the video on the R4 website, Davies looked so far out of his comfort zone one could hardly bear to watch, while 73-year-old Taylor, a more natural humourist, seemed quite at home pacing the stage, cracking jokes. However it was White who had the edge by virtue of his comedian's voice and his lack of inhibition about doing disability jokes. Who else but a blind person would dare do jokes about being blind? The public voted him the winner by a wide margin.

Evan Davis' blog

For me, the idea of standing in front of an audience of several hundred people, each of whom keenly expects you to make them laugh out loud, was pretty close to a nightmare.