Hugh Dennis

Hugh Dennis interview

Outnumbered funnyman Hugh Dennis graces TV screens this week with a new comedy show on BBC2.

Host Dara O'Briain's larger-than-average head comes in for stick in this seasonal special of the topical panel show ("On a normalsized head that would be a full head of hair," grins comedian Ed Byrne, pointing at O Briain's balding pate). Other not-so-festive topics in a compilation of previously unseen clips include police cuts and earthquake training. We're also treated to a news clip of the Queen shopping for a catsuit to wear for her annual broadcast on Christmas Day - or at least that's what team captain Hugh Dennis thinks Her Majesty is up to.

Now Show Preview - Jeremy Hunt and the Cult of Hunting

On tonight's Now Show, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis take a topical trip around tuition fees and Today tongue-twisters. Musical Mitch Benn sees the world through Lennon's eyes; German stand-up Henning Wehn probes our World Cup hypocrisy; John Finnemore wonders at the sexual magnetism of a certain Lib Dem MP and Laura Shavin reveals what every woman wants for Christmas.

Video: Why Footlights is a double act breeding ground

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis explain to BBC Breakfast why The Cambridge Footlights have produced so many successful double acts over the years, including Mitchell and Webb, Armstrong and Miller, and Fry and Laurie.

Notes from The Now Show: Tackling the Irish Bailout

Following last week's sudden bout of voicelessness, here's a reassuring message from Hugh Dennis: "Back on the show this week and able to speak, with part of me wishing I couldn't as we battle to extract the comedy value from the Irish debt crisis."

The Now Show Returns - Preview

A few hours before the recording we took a call from Hugh Dennis who was just about able to croak out the alarming message that he'd lost his voice and BBC doctors had signed him off work!

Hurray! I've really gone off The News Quiz (too blue for me and too self-satisfied for its own good) so welcome back Steve Punt, Hugh Dennis, Mitch Benn, Jon Holmes and Laura Shavin with their much wittier reflection of the week. There have been Friday nights in past series where I could have hugged them for being so astute and so funny about government goings on. Even with Cameron and Clegg and their coalition comrades being much harder to mimic than Brown and Blair, Darling, Prescott et al, I'm still confident my thoughts will be echoed in the team's jokes.

This Week on The Now Show: The Now Show turns 32

The Now Show is back back back! After Sandi and her News Quiz team go and lie down in a darkened room until they are next required. We're on to series 32 of The Now Show, amazingly, and Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis still look as fresh and gamine as years at the comedy coal face will allow.

Perfectly timed to ward off those back-to-school blues, the ever-popular topical panel show returns after a summer holiday. Tonight's guests are Thick of It star Chris Addison, Andi Osho - both fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe - and Milton Jones, who does a fine line in ludicrous puns. Unlikely to let them get a gag in edgeways are regulars Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard and Andy Parsons, while host Dara O'Briain dishes out points. Expect an impudent digest of the week's news, arbitrary scores and puerile one-liners aplenty.