Frank Skinner

Frank Skinner to front BBC2 entertainment show

Frank Skinner's Opinionated will be his first regular presenting job for the BBC for more than a decade.

A topical news quiz on Friday night in which a witty panel are quizzed about the week's events. Hang on, haven't we seen this before? For the past 20 years?

Well, The Bubble has a twist. The guests are shut away from the world for a few days beforehand so they are oblivious to the stories, and then have to guess which one of a selection of them is true, and which are false.

Despite a few clunky elements, we enjoyed it. We're not sure we'll enjoy it every week, but in this opener the blend of guests and host was perfect.

Host David Mitchell's awkwardness in chairing proceedings amused through his discomfort in having to control and guide a show rather than the liberation of a panellist who can rant and rave without restriction. A weakness that Reginald D. Hunter took full advantage of, hilariously mocking the subdued Mitchell at every opportunity.

Victoria Coren's simmering disdain for the mothers of Mumsnet, whom she vilified for their shameless advertising of their fertility and deluded faith that they are in someway important, was a compelling advert for enforced national sterilisation in the belief that an extinct population is better than a conceited one. And she has a point.

While Frank Skinner picked out the idiosyncrasies in the stories, illuminating their absurdity. In the first round, he guessed that a report on Merseyside Police receiving a fine for using a mini-flying camera without permission because he thought an interview with a solicitor was too real: "No actor would play him that bleak."

We're not sure that the guests will be good enough to save it every week. If things get dour, we suppose Mitchell can always storm off on one of his tangential rants about the ridiculousness of the world. The opening news reports, however, were far too long and quite dull, while the show seemed to lack flow. You could see the join between each of the rounds as though the three rounds had been assembled from a much larger kit, most of which had been discarded because of obsolescence.

Although next week we'll be back. Tempted by the prospect of lines as good as: "The man who has celebrated Christmas every day for 14 years has been found crucified in his back garden."

The Bubble is yet another new topical panel show designed to capture the Have I Got News for You/QI audience. Its twist is to sequester participants away for three days without access to any media, and then show them a series of news and gossip stories. They must decide which are real and which are made-up. David Mitchell presents. Frank Skinner, Victoria Coren and comic Reginald D. Hunter are The Bubble's first victims.

This new comedy quiz show is based on the premise that some news stories are so preposterous that they might as well have been made up. A group of comedians and celebrities are locked away for four days in a media-free "bubble", without access to phones, TV, newspapers or the internet. Oddly enough, there was no shortage of volunteers. When they emerge, the host David Mitchell confronts them with reports, headlines and images, some real and some invented. They have to distinguish one from the other. Frank Skinner and Victoria Coren are the contestants tonight, while future guests include Marcus Brigstocke, Clive Anderson, Sue Perkins and Germaine Greer. Already a big success in Israel and Poland, the quiz looks likely be a lot of fun.

There was once a bloke in a bubble...

. . . who wasn't allowed any contact with the outside world. So he ended up telling stories like this.

David Mitchell hosts a new comedy-news quiz. Now that's what we call a game-changer. No previews available, as it's going to be topical news from the week, but it sounds like Celebrity Big Brother meets Call My Bluff and Mr & Mrs: three slebs are locked in a "media-free zone" for three days and, on exiting, have to pick out the genuine news stories from the invented ones. Tonight, it's the turn of Frank Skinner, Reginald D. Hunter and some poker player to sort out the headlines from the head-lies.

This is an odd one, a current affairs panel show that sounds like a weird hybrid of Have I Got News for You, Would I Lie to You? and Big Brother. Each week, three celebrity contestants will be locked away in a "media-free zone" without access to phones, television and the internet. After four days they will emerge, blinking into the light, to take their places in a television studio where The Bubble's quizmaster, the frighteningly learned and erudite David Mitchell, will question them on the week's news. But not just any news. The Bubble aims to dig out bizarre news and magazine stories so improbable they sound made up, and put them alongside fake items. It's down to the contestants to guess which ones are true. The Bubble's first participants are Frank Skinner, Reginald D. Hunter and Victoria Coren. We are told the format has done well overseas - but will The Bubble burst over here?

A new topical news format sees celeb panelists locked away in a media-free zone for three days. So far so good. Anything that gets Frank Skinner off the streets, even briefly, gets my vote.

But then, worse luck, they're let out to answer questions from quiz-master David Mitchell. Can they spot real news stories from fakes and should we care?

Other guests this week include the very funny ­Reginald D Hunter and Victoria Coren. Fingers crossed that Katie Price and Peter Andre can both be enticed to enter this media-free bubble and that a junior researcher "accidentally" loses the key.

Frank Skinner hints at new World Cup song

Comedian Frank Skinner has said that he wants to write a new World Cup song to follow the success of his hit football anthem, Three Lions.

There was no danger whatsoever of anyone wresting control of Russell Brand: Skinned from its star, even though the second half of the title referred to Frank Skinner, whose sit-down interview with Brand formed the spine of this shapeless and curiously unrevealing documentary. Or at least it seemed unrevealing, because so much of Brand's life comes pre-revealed. Unfortunately for the programme-makers, their subject has built his stand-up career on confessional routines, so even when he was describing his most private thoughts to his fellow comedian, I felt like I'd heard it all before.

Still, neither man is ever less than engaging, especially when they're talking about themselves. Brand, much of whose recent Scandalous tour revolves around so-called Sachsgate, spoke intelligently about the affair. Clear-eyed when it comes to his own mistakes, he also argued convincingly that they were amplified by the context of the disputed BBC licence fee, Jonathan Ross's salary, and the hammed-up outrage of the press.

The most interesting moments of their conversation came when Skinner paralleled Brand's experiences with his own comparatively sedate career. Skinner admitted to having "done a lot of groupie-ing" in his time, but was troubled by the blot such behaviour might have left on his moral copybook. Brand agreed, but often, he said, he's simply overcome by the "oestrogen-filled mist" that descends on his gigs. He created his womanising, Byronic goth persona, he confessed, partly as a substitute for the drugs and alcohol that once sustained him. Now that it's brought him the fame he craved, he's stuck with it. "My personality does not work without fame," he joked. "Without fame, this haircut just looks like mental illness."

Skinner also praised Brand for having - with his distinctive estuary eloquence - made it cool to be articulate, a fantastic compliment from a comedian who'll probably always be associated with mid-Nineties laddism, which sadly had the opposite effect. At one point, Brand went into lyrical detail about his ritual, pre-gig poo, describing it as a physical and spiritual cleansing that prepares him to meet his adoring public. Hmm, Skinner replied, "Most comedians just call that 'the comedy shit'."