Frank Skinner

Edinburgh comedy awards: explore all the winners

From Cambridge Footlights in 1981 to Bridget Christie in 2013, explore the history of the Foster's Edinburgh comedy awards. Find out who won, who they beat and how the art of comedy changed each year. When did stand-up come to the fore rather than sketch humour? Who was the first female winner? Who won in the year that Jack Dee, Lily Savage and Frank Skinner were in the running? The various nominees include a minor royal and the narrator of Peppa Pig... The winners of the 2015 awards will be announced on 29 August.

Taskmaster is the kind of Dave thing that shouldn't quite work but is actually wildly stupid fun. Mainly thanks to Alex Horne, late of so much splendid radio, and Greg Davies, and regulars such as Frank Skinner and Romesh Ranganathan. And eating a watermelon in a minute, and having to paint a horse while riding a horse and other activities that would have been unsuited to, say, Queen Victoria's funeral. A winner.

Great comedians can make anything funny. Eric Morecambe bleeding a radiator or Les Dawson reading out AutoTrader would be hilarious by default, but could modern standups work that same magic when, say, eating an entire watermelon or emptying a bathtub? Dave's new panel show hinges precariously on that premise, with a quintet of comics - this week including Frank Skinner, Tim Key and Roisin Conaty - performing acts at the behest of titular taskmaster Greg Davies. In practice, a premise unlikely to tickle the titter glands of many.

Radio Times review

As a civilisation, we're starting to realise that asking questions about news or trivia from behind a desk isn't the best way to wring semi-improvised laughs out of moderately popular comedians. Far wiser to make them do something less restrictive, where the thing itself is funny before anyone starts. So we come to this fun new jolly, where titular Taskmaster Greg Davies - flanked by the show's creator Alex Horne - awards comics marks for eating as much watermelon as they can in a minute, emptying a bathtub without pulling the plug out, or painting a horse while riding a horse.

The comfortingly familiar guests are Frank Skinner, Josh Widdicombe, Roisin Conaty, Romesh Ranganathan and Tim Key. Skinner is a good weathervane, since he's been around far too long to bother laughing politely at unfunny jokes. Here, he laughs a lot.

Frank Skinner has made a long and lucrative career out of being all things to all people. He's a sensitive aesthete in blokeish clothing, a 56-year-old who is still regarded as the epitome of a certain kind of laddism. Firstly, though, he's an accomplished standup. In this 2014 show, he explores everything from celebrity perks to charity shops.

Frank Skinner's Name That Tune suffers setbacks

Frank Skinner's return to ITV has suffered a setback following a series of problems and bad jokes including one about Rolf Harris, it has been reported.

Radio Times review

About once an episode, a guest on Frank Skinner's amiable pet-hates show makes a suggestion that immediately unites celebs, studio audience and viewing public. Adrian Chiles takes that mantle this week with his disdain for people who recline aircraft seats. It provides the best banter of the episode, too. Skinner has a stronger bond with Chiles, having witnessed many a West Bromwich Albion loss alongside him, than he does with the other two panellists.

They chip in, though. Des O'Connor springs to life with a perfectly timed gag about his own libido, while Radio 1's Jameela Jamil causes a generational and gender clash that's sometimes awkward, sometimes fruitful.

Radio Times review

For a while, Bob Mortimer isn't having much luck with his pet hates. Nobody seems to share his very specific dislike of shop assistants who put your change in your hand on top of the receipt, or his aversion to wrapping food in bacon.

But when he rails against the unripe fruit sold in supermarkets, suddenly the audience is with him, bursting into applause, and host Frank Skinner is onside, too. That's the thing with the micro-annoyances aired on this show - they're merely a leaping-off point for celebrity small talk. Also airing grievances are Rachel Riley (Essex girl stereotypes; officious people in uniforms) and Mrs Brown actor Brendan O'Carroll, who for some reason hates small pedal bins.