Geoff Norcott

The team behind BBC2's The Mash Report have known since November that the show, hosted by Nish Kumar, was not going to be recommissioned by the Beeb, but the news only became public last week, when the Sun ran the story under the headline "Nish Mash Bosh".

The show's fourth series - which was scrambled together in April last year, so after the start of lockdown - had enjoyed its best ratings yet. The [o]BBC[/c] was happy about how it had done (it had outperformed average viewing figures for a 10pm slot on BBC2) and even started making noise about promoting it from one seires a year to two.

Then, in September, Tim Davie arrived as director-general, accompanied by excited noises in the Mail and Telegraph about a coming crackdown on ribald, leftie comedy, and the wind changed. After a long silence, the Beeb decided it couldn't stretch to two series a year, so would opt instead not to have any.

The Mash Report - which incidentally was just about the only TV comedy to feature a right-wing comedian, Geoff Norcott, almost every week - has already had interest from other broadcasters, meaning there's every chance it could end up as another Bake Off. But at least Davie's fans in the press are happy.

Seven hilarious Mash Report moments that went viral

The Mash Report has been responsible for numerous viral moments over the years, and here are 7 of the best.

Geoff Norcott on swapping South London for the country

Stand-up comedian Geoff Norcott, 44, is renowned for his appearances on TV shows including The Mash Report, Live At The Apollo and Mock The Week. His UK tour starts in September. Today, we're not chatting with him about the funny stuff, but about all things property instead.

Right on: does stand-up comedy have a left-wing bias?

The idea that the artform skews left is widespread, but the prevalence of comedians punching down suggests otherwise.

Geoff Norcott donates to charity after losing bet

"£1,000 to charity if anyone can dig out a Jim Davidson routine about politics," he tweeted. "I must've missed the bit on Big Break where him and John Virgo were digging out the unions." But Chortle editor Steve Bennett quickly quoted Davidson's 2003 stand-up special Vote For Jim, which contains plenty of political gags, as the title suggests.

Review: The Duchess, Netflix

It'll be interesting to see how the comedy goes down in America as the programme has a strong English feel - there is a Richard Curtis-y sunny West London vibe to the look, with a splash of Motherland and Catastrophe thrown in for good measure.