Graeme Garden

I've taken a while to get round to this panel game, and can hardly believe it has already embarked on its fifth series, yet it does seem curiously appropriate to our times. Whereas a format like Just a Minute relies on old-fashioned verbal fluency, the success of this show, developed by Graeme Garden, rests on the modern taste for factoids coupled with our newfound habit of subjecting everything we hear to a kind of plausibility pre-screening.

The likeable David Mitchell, who has managed in a very short time to step into Stephen Fry's commodious shoes, rules with a kind of brainy decency and surely has Radio 4 engraved on his heart. But the result is quirky rather than hilarious.

Up for discussion were beer, babies and spiders and among the diverting facts that emerged were that "most babies cry in the key of A", that Germany has a unique species of flea that is only found near beer-mats, and that Isaac Newton's only reported speech in the House of Commons as an MP was to ask someone to close the window.

Some of the alleged truths seemed a bit suspect to me, though. A spider is the only animal that sleeps on its back, for example. What about my cat, as I and a lot of other listeners protested? Then again, these truths are probably as reliable as anything else you'll hear this side of a general election.

From Laurel and Hardy's collapsing pianos to Reeves and Mortimer's oscillating frying pans, this diverting documentary traces the enduring appeal of physical comedy. While its origins are ascribed to a combination of anti-authoritarianism, sadism and reckless juvenility, clips illustrate the meticulous timing vital to the custard pie and the banana skin. Barry Cryer, Ben Miller and Graeme Garden are among the expert insight-dispensers; but what it all boils down to is Frank Spencer hurtling through a shopping precinct on roller-skates ("BETTY!"). Champion.

By chance, John Humphrys asking "Would you like a turn?" featured as one of the Questions That Are Never Asked on the new series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The choice of Jack Dee to take over from the lamented Humphrey Lyttleton was an inspired one, even if his first joke about Jacqui Smith's husband destroying her career "single-handed" did sound a lot like The News Quiz. Fortunately, with the help of panellists like Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, the programme's unique flavour remains. Like Wogan's world, the "antidote to panel games" depends a lot on the surreal, the in-joke, and the trick of being risqué without being offensive. New games like Pensioners Film Club ("Death in Fenwicks" "The Postman Always Has to Knock Twice") mixed with old favourites like One Song to the Tune of Another. The sound of Rob Brydon singing the words of Jim'll Fix it to tune of "Mad World" made me choke with laughter. The problem with in-jokes though, is that people get them too quickly. At one point Jack Dee had to issue the howling audience with a plaintive reprimand. "I have got punch lines... please wait."

After two weeks of trailers few can be unaware of the return of the "antidote to panel games" with Stephen Fry in the chair. Recorded at Her Majesty's Theatre weeks ago, the audience roars approval for Fry's saucy delivery of Iain Pattinson's salty script. Sven replaces Samantha as the invisible scorer, offering more chances to spot the innuendo. Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor and guest panellist Victoria Wood make merry with the customary multitude of entendres, double and single Colin Sell, as ever, is at the piano.

After the sad passing of our beloved Humph, ISIHAC could have quietly shuffled off into the sunset, but it returns with guest host (and former panel member) Stephen Fry. Regulars Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined by new girl Victoria Wood, who turned down the chance to appear on the show 19 years ago, but hopefully will make many more appearances in future.

Recorded at the Lowry in April of this year, this is the only complete filmed version of the touring show of Humphrey Lyttelton's much loved Radio 4 panel game, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. Sadly it was also the last as Lyttelton went into hospital 10 days later. The set-up is the same as a standard radio recording, and includes regular panellists Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden.

Alan Davies stars as Jack the dog, observing Sarah (Claire Goose), her clothes, her little ways, all with the ironic devotion of a really clever pet. Sarah has a boyfriend, Adrian (Darren Boyd), on whom Jack is not at all keen. She also has an annoying mother (Deborah Norton). We can hear Jack's inner thoughts. No one else can. By Graeme Garden, from an original idea by the late Debbie Barham.

This week brought a poignant reminder of this tradition with the broadcast of About a Dog (Radio 4), the realisation of the last project proposed by comedy writer Debbie Barham before her death, at 26, from anorexia last year. She knew all about the different perceptions of men and women where comedy is concerned, mailing her early manuscripts into editors for consideration using her initials rather than her first name so as to bypass likely prejudice.

Barham began sending sketches and jokes into radio at 14, and despite writing to great acclaim for television, retained her love of radio's unique comic possibilities. This short series about a dog's-eye view of the human world, scripted by Graeme Garden, suits the medium perfectly and avoids the anthropomorphic schmaltz that visuals would bring to it. The result is a very affectionate tribute to Barham, and one you immediately sense has been a labour of love. It's also superb, gentle comedy in its own right, with Alan Davies excelling as Jack, the four-legged friend who always sounds at least mildly put out and bewildered by human foolishness.

While he can't understand sexual foreplay ("I just trot up," he says, "give it a quick sniff and murmur, 'stand still a minute'. That usually does the trick"), he has learned that eating his mistress's dinner from the kitchen worktop isn't a popular move. So he licks it instead. "I can never remember if I like olives," he slobbers, sampling her pizza topping. "No, don't like olives. Actually, that pizza looks better for a bit of a lick - what they call a glaze."

About a Dog (6.30pm, Radio 4), starring Alan Davies and Kate Ashfield, was written by Graeme Garden, based on notes left by Debbie Barham, the talented young comedy writer who died last year. Davies is the mutt Jack (I imagine he'd look like Dougal off The Magic Roundabout); Ashfield is his mistress, Sarah. Jack is as happy as a dog with two d***s until Sarah and her boyfriend decide to move in together.