Hugh Grant

The best of Richard Curtis's romcoms about awfully nice chaps dithering over frightfully pretty girls. Hugh Grant plays bumbling Charles, who, ah, er, can't tell what's, um, going on between him and Carrie (Andie MacDowell), whom he keeps bumping into at weddings.

Hugh Grant takes pirate role in new Aardman adventure

Actor Hugh Grant will voice a bumbling pirate captain in a 3D animated adventure from the team behind the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films.

Richard Curtis's winsome romcom seems to be becoming a Christmas staple. Featuring a host of Britain's favourite actors including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy, it delves into the personal lives of 10 very different individuals whose lives become loosely entangled in the run-up to the holiday.

Renée Zellweger returns as the thirtysomething with more frothy romantic shenanigans in an inferior sequel to the first film. Bridget, having spent "eight blissful weeks" in a relationship with dashing Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), is single again. But thankfully her ex, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) is at hand to provide distraction.

Remember that scene in Four Weddings And A Funeral when Andie MacDowell lists her sexual partners to a beleaguered Hugh Grant? Well, this is sort of that, stretched out over two parts. This time, our leading lady is Michelle Ryan playing a statistics-obsessed maths teacher who reckons the 11th sexual partner is the one you should marry - the appearance of an ex on her wedding day prompts a romp through her hot-under-the-collar past. It's not entirely successful because Ryan's not much of an actress and the script is a bit lacklustre. But the eye-candy credentials of Sean Maguire and Adam Garcia, and an appearance by sweet Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel are enough to keep you paying attention.

Does watching Norman Wisdom get floored by a ladder tickle your fancy? Maybe the sight of Basil Fawlty belting his car with a branch has you helpless. Or perhaps it is the observational comedy of Richard Pryor that hits your funny bone. Whatever it is, it is jolly good for you: that laughter is the best medicine is now a proven medical fact. In her deconstruction of laughter, examining its psychology and physiology, Jerry Hall commands the highest quality contributors. Luminaries from the academic field are only outshone by the staggering assembly of comedic talent. Walliams, Lucas, Fry, Henry, Brand, Cleese, Noble and others talk about the styles of comedy that have influenced them and often made them become funny in the first place. She even has access to Hugh Grant, who talks about the challenges an actor faces in comedy films, usually by Richard Curtis. And yes, he's here too.