Henning Wehn

Radio Times review

Caroline Quentin doesn't like control pants and wants them dumped in Room 101 as her most hated aspect of the Modern World. You can tell by the reaction of the women in the audience that they feel the same way about being "crammed into Lycra... I've been subjected to these for years."

Meanwhile the tiresomely provocative German comedian Henning Wehn, who has bafflingly been taken to the bosom of Radio Four and both BBC One and BBC Two, judging by the number of times he appears on panel shows, hates anything to do with fundraising. And Michael Ball is fed up with being sent teddy bears by fans: "I've got enough now, I don't need any more."

After 14 series of banishing the horrors of modern life into Room 101, the world should, theoretically, be an altogether marvellous place by now, free of all annoyances and populated almost entirely by kittens. So what a pity that Room 101 isn't real. Still, we can dream.

Competing to consign their personal pet hates to oblivion in this week's surprisingly controversial instalment are Caroline Quentin, Michael Ball and comedian Henning Wehn. Henning is German, and if you didn't know that before the start of this episode you certainly will once it gets going. Perhaps that's why he has the brass neck to attack a cornerstone of British life - fundraising.

What's even more surprising is that he's doing it at primetime on the BBC, home of Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief. If Henning had his way, Pudsey Bear would be on the dole.

And speaking of bears, just wait till you see one of the props that Frank is modelling tonight - it's one of the daftest ever.

The laugh-per-half-hour quota is guaranteed to stay steady with crooner Michael Ball and one-woman comfort blanket Caroline Quentin trying not to be upstaged by comedy German Henning Wehn. While Quentin attempts to banish control pants into the legendary room, Wehn goes straight for the jugular with fundraising. And don't get him started on the royal family. Ball, meanwhile, can't stand being showered with soft toys. "You want to toughen up your image," suggests Henning as the heart of many a fan breaks.

Rob Brydon manfully steers the quiz show in which a talent for lying about your life leads to victory, especially if the opposition is vulnerable to having the wool pulled over their eyes. Tonight, Lee Mack is flanked by Getting On star Joanna Scanlan and Henning Wehn, German Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain. The opposition is led by David Mitchell, skipping alongside Olympic golden jumper Greg Rutherford and Desert Island Discs jockey Kirsty Young, who claims she has five chickens all named after her favourite newsreaders. Please let it be true.

Picture if you will, David Mitchell on a stag weekend in Cornwall, taking some time out to have a surfing lesson. Are you struggling? Yes, Lee Mack struggles with the idea, too, so he challenges Mitchell to demonstrate his technique for going from prone to standing on the board. The series is all the better for serving up these occasional gems of physical comedy among the verbal sparring.

Meanwhile, German stand-up Henning Wehn applies his bracing vowel sounds to a travelling yarn about Spanish trains, Moroccan enclaves, Interpol and a suitcase full of books. It's so bizarre, he convinces Mitchell's team it must be true. But is it?

Henning Wehn - the German word for comedy

Born in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Henning Wehn is now based in London, and is not afraid to play with the British stereotype of Germans, including subverting their perceived lack of a sense of humour for laughs.

The Alternative Comedy Experience made an excellent point about its subject - if only it were a little bit funnier.

When did 'alternative' become a dirty word in comedy circles? Early on in The Alternative Comedy Experience (Comedy Central), Stewart Lee noted that 'for an entire generation of people, alternative comedy is a pejorative term', which led to a cracking definition of what the term alternative comedy actually means: 'Every second joke is funny.'

The tongue was firmly in cheek but there's a serious mission behind Lee's latest comedy caper. Disgruntled by the relentless commodification of comedy - the stadium tours, the DVDs, the rent-a-gob TV panel shows - Lee is after giving a chance to comedians with an edge to them. Let's kick Michael Mcintyre and the pack of mainstream comics who dominate TV's comedy schedules into touch.

It's a noble cause but, of course, The Alternative Comedy Experience, which consists of stand-up highlights from an Edinburgh club, is tucked away late at night on a minority channel. No scaring of the horses there, but it's a start. Comedy, like rock music in 1976, has become safe and complacent, the one-time young guns suckered into safety by money. You can scarcely blame them, but I will anyway.

My only wish is that it had been a bit funnier. Issy Suttie, Peep Show's Dobbie, and token crazy German Henning Wehn, seemed like safe, first-episode choices when here was a chance to really roam around comedy's outer fringes. David O'Doherty was the pick of the unfamiliar faces, coming up with the gag of the night which started with the economic crisis and ended with badminton. But it wasn't nearly enough.

For the most part, Lee's off-stage chats with the comedians easily eclipsed anything that had gone down on stage, prompting the idea that Lee should have a stab at being an alternative chat show host. That would be one with no guests.

Radio Times review

The popular image of stand-up nowadays is of arena tours, massive-selling DVDs and appearances on TV panel shows. But Stewart Lee wants to wrest what is known as "alternative comedy" away from the pejorative backwater where it's been languishing. In truth, that means a series of lower-profile - though very funny - comedians on stage at the Stand in Edinburgh. Henning Wehn, Isy Suttie, Boothby Graffoe, David Kay, David O'Doherty and Glenn Wool are in the line-up - and the conversations with Lee are bite-sized gems.

Is it the recession? The Tories? The procession of fresh-faced ob-coms filling the O2 with their jaunty musings on social-media etiquette and supermarket self-service checkouts? Who knows. But there's little doubt that what older readers will recognise as alternative comedy is undergoing a mini-renaissance. Alexei Sayle has returned to stand-up and this new series sees Stewart Lee, who has flown the flag through alt.com's fallow years, introducing comedy from The Stand in Edinburgh. It's simultaneously refreshing and frustrating.

Tonight's opener features Isy Suttie, David Kay, Boothby Graffoe, Henning Wehn, Glenn Wool and David O'Doherty. But not for very long: at half an hour, and with ads and six comedians per show, it means approximately one and a half gags each - although the same half-dozen will be returning for more across the 12-part series, which showcases a total of 20 stand-ups. It's great to see more marginal comic turns getting exposure, but frustrating that we aren't allowed to see them in full flow, at least tonight.