Gary Barlow

Nipping in a week ahead of his big Friday night rival Graham Norton, Alan Carr (left) kicks off a new series of lippy chat and louche one-liners by inviting Ricky Gervais and Jessica Hynes to lock comedy horns. Those two can give as good as they get, so it could be a riot. Calming things down will be Gary Barlow, continuing on his highly successful solo comeback with new single Since I Saw You Last.

There is nothing like a Dame. The last time Edna Everage was on Ross's show she berated him for his bad language and "homophobic" band name. As she breezed through various routines, the host barely got a word in edgeways. With her retirement approaching we can only hope she's even more scurrilous now. Also in the Green Room are Gary Barlow, Simon Pegg and FHM favourite Michelle "Tina from Corrie" Keegan.

As Kirsty Lang discovered in her piece for Radio Times a few weeks ago, Naomi Campbell is not the easiest of interviewees. Let's hope Ross doesn't ask the wrong question and cause the supermodel to strop out, as she did with Kirsty. Or rather, let's hope he does: it's just the voltage-raiser the show needs, seeing as his other guests tonight are the three X Factor judges (Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger). A simple-minded soul might think Ross's guest-bookers were running out of juice.

The best guests sit on Norton's sofa and tonight's line-up is all Hollywood glitter. Big, smiley Bradley Cooper is a Norton regular who's always great fun - who can forget him flirting outrageously with Jo Brand? He's with Heather Graham to promote another of his Hangover films.

Will Smith did the unimaginable and eclipsed Sir Tom Jones last time he appeared when he did the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air rap with Gary Barlow. Tonight he's with son Jaden (the pair star together in After Earth), while Michael Douglas will be talking about his latest role as Liberace.

On at exactly the same time and on the same day as Heading Out, Dave's panel show Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask returned for a second series this week.

The format's pretty much the same as before. Alexander Armstrong presents and all three of his guests, in this case Jo Brand, Stephen Mangan and Tim Vine, have to come up with the questions everyone will be asking. Amongst the questions that came up included the subject of the clurichaun (the "leprechaun's naughty cousin"), why the Aztecs were such unsuccessful warriors, and Adam's first wife...who wasn't Eve.

It's a good show, and while the fact it's on Dave means it will never get a big audience (much of it taken away thanks to Perkins's show on the other side) it still deserves a watch because it can throw up some decent moments. One example was a tangent which involved Manga talking about his upcoming role in the film version of Postman Pat - speaking parts only mind, the singing being down by Gary Barlow.

However, perhaps the best thing about this new series is that the idea of the "fact bunker" with Dave Lamb verifying the information has been got rid of. It never worked and I'm glad to see the change made. In fact, I pointed out this was the weakest moment when I reviewed the first series last year. Giz a job, Dave.

Series three took a couple of episodes to find itself but, once it settled into the story of Miranda's relationship with nice Mike, conducted when she'd really be with even nicer Gary, it flew. It's delightfully at easy with its own uncoolness, and more cleverly written than its detractors would allow. Check out the dizzying comings and goings of episode five, building up to a hot cameo by Gary Barlow.

Miranda fans delighted by Gary Barlow cameo

Miranda's latest episode was marked by more 'eeeeee'-ing and 'yaaaaaay'-ing than usual on Twitter, thanks to a guest appearance from Take That's Gary Barlow who was seen sharing a kiss with Miranda Hart.

Report from the Gary Barlow studio recording

As an avid tweeter I couldn't wait to tweet about it, however then came this from Miranda: "You know that reaction you had when Gary walked on? We want that for the fans, so please don't spoil it. Don't tweet about it. We don't want this getting out. Thank you very much."

Do you remember the day you discovered Kettle crisps? Dawn French does: it was at Kirsty MacColl's house, apparently - and amazing they were too. A revolution in fried potatoes that was up there in hers and Jennifer Saunders's list of top 10 nibbles, as shared with the nation over four daft minutes of primetime Christmas Day radio (French and Saunders, Radio 2). "I had some lovely nuts last night," giggled Saunders. Schoolgirl stuff, it's true, but French and Saunders always mined gold from the silliest, most irreverent material. And so, Dawn French dumped Simon Cowell live on air for Gary Barlow, hoping she would stop having to read Hello! magazine to keep tabs on her celebrity boyfriend. Saunders, thoroughly English in her expert self-deprecation, reeled off a list of prestigious awards her badly reviewed Spice Girl musical, Viva Forever, had won, while French gently ribbed her for her post-cancer press coverage. "You're not even brave any more!"

Best of all was the surprise kiss and tell on celebrity snoggers. Having smooched George Clooney, David Beckham and Brad Pitt over the years, French told Emma Bunton (who popped up on the Someone And Their Mum feature) that none of the world's hottest men came close to matching her real favourite: Jamie Theakston (who knew?), former children's TV presenter and Bunton's breakfast show co-host on Heart FM. But mostly it was a joy to simply listen to French and Saunders chatter in the background of my mum's busy kitchen, emitting exactly the right frequency of festive jolliness without being smug or irritating. No mean feat - you just wish they would do more shows.

Gary Barlow to star in Miranda as love interest

X Factor judge Gary Barlow is joining BBC1 - as comic Miranda Hart's latest love interest.