Frank Skinner

Why drama National Treasure featured real comedians

The creator of the Channel 4 drama about a comedian accused of sexual abuse explains that the use of real stars was vital for the drama's "authenticity", including Frank Skinner, Alan Carr and Lee Mack.

David Baddiel: Three Lions killed off football anthems

With the Euro 2016 football tournament starting on Friday, the England team have yet to reveal an official song, and David Baddiel thinks he knows why. "I can tell you why there isn't one, and why there hasn't been one for a while," the comedian told BBC News. "And that's because Three Lions killed off the football anthem quite conclusively. There were a few attempts after 1996 but no-one managed it. And that's because it is the best football anthem of all time."

Frank Skinner's nightmare is great fun for us

Frank Skinner has a recurring dream in which he is standing on stage in front of an audience and has absolutely nothing to say to them. On Monday, that dream (nightmare?) came true.

Radio Times review

Comedian James Acaster kicks things off nicely with his first pet hate, which is simply: geese. They are "the worst of all the animals," he argues via a nice routine on their lairy attitude. Which naturally is topped by host Frank Skinner, who goes off at a tangent with a story about geese and Rod Stewart - and as we know, Skinner's tangents and flights of fancy are what hold the show aloft, when it would otherwise be little more than "Gripe Idol". His routine about his tea-making approach is wonderful and leaves Heston Blumenthal spluttering in despair. Also on tonight: Kirsty Wark, who really doesn't like plastic flowers.

David Tennant wants to put sushi into the titular dungeon. "It doesn't even come with chips!" "To be fair," says Frank Skinner, "you come from a place where they won't even eat raw Mars bars." Elsewhere, comedian Aisling Bea has it in for pigeons, along with adults on scooters ("like getting breastfed at 40"). But what are we to make of the rapturous applause that greets Sir Trevor McDonald's request for less queuing? Truly, the UK is going to hell in a handcart.

Radio Times review

Two startling moments arrive in rapid succession this week. The first is Arsenal legend and football pundit Ian Wright launching what's more or less a feminist critique of Grease: as the father of daughters, he disapproves of the hoops the female characters have to jump through, and indeed the trousers they have to squeeze into, to be deemed worthy of the males. In the consequent badinage, host Frank Skinner claims not to be able to sing "Hopelessly Devoted" to You without bawling. He's willing to demonstrate.

Hard pushed to compete with this are Joanna Scanlan, who accurately details the top no-nos when sharing a butter knife, and spider-hater Noel Fielding.

Radio Times review

Suzy Klein and Frank Skinner conclude their hands-on history of popular British entertainment. If you don't mind the chummy flippancy (that Phil and Kirstie thing of cheerily bickering on the voiceover - stop it!) and the indulgence of Klein and Skinner having a go at everything, it's a stirring nostalgia trip that gets under performers' skins rather than merely eulogising them.

While Skinner builds up to a performance as Max Miller and Klein learns to be all three Andrews Sisters, the pair also have a crack at skiffle, and Wilson, Keppel and Betty's sand dance. And Barry Cryer tells an A1 anecdote about a man being thrown out of the Windmill Club for bringing binoculars.

As the 19th century became the 20th, music hall morphed into something called "variety" - a showcase for acts such as "the stud of cantankerous and educated ponies, introduced by Mr Boswell". Frank Skinner and Suzy Klein pick up the story, celebrating megastars such as Harry Lauder, gender-bending Vesta Tilley, Gracie Fields and that leer on legs, the brilliantly disgusting George Formby, with his little stick of Blackpool rock ("It's nice to have a nibble at it now and again").

What A Performance! review

Is that Les Dawson after a diet? No it's Frank Skinner in a dress.

What a Performance! review: 'enthusiastic but clueless'

Frank Skinner and Suzy Klein should have left this documentary about Victorian entertainment to the experts, says Gerard O'Donovan.