Ian Wolf

Amongst the programmes over Christmas this week included a dramatisation of David Walliams' children's novel, Mr. Stink.

The story follows a young girl, Chloe (Nell Tiger Free), the eldest daughter of a vile right-wing mother (Sheridan Smith) who wants to become an MP, and whose main policy is getting the homeless off the streets in any way possible. Chloe encounters a tramp, who goes by the name of Mr. Stink (Hugh Bonneville), so called because of his terrible odour.

Mr. Stink's only companion is his dog the Duchess (Pudsey, the winner of Britain's Got Talent), and so Chloe becomes friends with him and eventually persuades him to move into her shed - all while trying to avoid the wrath of her mother.

It's no surprise that this and indeed all of Walliams's children's books have a heavy influence from Roald Dahl. Much of the humour in Mr. Stink's visual, which for a pre-watershed children's comedy isn't a surprise, but it was good. It ranges from Chloe's younger sister Annabelle (Isabella Blake-Thomas) taking part in a historical re-enactment society dressed in full medieval armour, to both of them giving Mr. Stink a full makeover. There are also the throwaway comments in the show, such as Stink claiming that he is "lice free, but no stranger to worms."

In terms of a children's comedy, this seems to tick all of my boxes. It's inoffensive, it's witty, and it's not too childish so adults can watch it without feeling embarrassed. No doubt that more Walliams novels will be adapted for future Christmases.

Hosted by Rory Bremner, Mike Yarwood: So This Is Him! profiles the first great impressionist, Mike Yarwood.

Yarwood was somewhat before my time, so this documentary was one of those chances to appreciate a comedian whose shows are never repeated. Of course, there is a reason why impressionism and satire isn't repeated that often...

My own knowledge of Yarwood before this programme was limited to knowing a handful of people he mimicked - Harold Wilson and Eddie Waring - and knowing that he fell into decline because he couldn't impersonate Margaret Thatcher. But there was so much that surprised me, including the fact that Yarwood invented the phrase "I mean that most sincerely, folks." It's associated with Hughie Green, but Green himself never used.

In the documentary for Radio 2, Bremner claims that one of Yarwood's great achievements was to humanise politicians. He wasn't as vicious and cutting as the later satirists on shows like Spitting Image, which probably didn't help him in his later career.

While Yarwood suffered due to changes in how people like to receive their laughs, there's no doubt he was a great comic. If only they repeated his stuff more often - and indeed Spitting Image for that matter...

The main Radio 4 comedy celebrating Christmas was I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, broadcast as a 45-minute long extended edition. Stephen Fry was the guest, alongside host Jack Dee, panellists Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, and pianist Colin Sell - although sadly no Samantha (Sven took the place as scorer).

In the special there was the usual selection of rounds, from "Mornington Crescent" to "Sound Charades", and "Nativity Radio Times" to "One Song to the Tune of Another", which allows the listeners to hear Fry's version of Goodness Gracious Me to the tune of The First Noel, a sound which makes you wonder who would win a singing contest between Fry and Jeremy Hardy...

One of my main complaints about the BBC's comedy programming in 2012 was the lack of coverage it gave to the ISIHAC's 40th anniversary. This show was almost the only marker of the celebration, whereas the 45th anniversary of Just a Minute was given extensive coverage, including a TV adaptation (the third in its history) and episodes recorded in India.

JAM's a great comedy too, of course, but I do think that ISIHAC is the better of the two. And if the BBC aren't going to honour it then hopefully I can here. Here's to another 40 years of funnies - maybe...

Gigglebox weekly #70

This Christmas Ian Wolf encounters a pong, kissing via TV and two doses of Hugh Bonneville.

Given that Giggle Beats is first and foremost based in the North East, I thought it was only right to review a Christmas comedy presented by someone from the region. Luckily The Sarah Millican Television Programme was a joyous programme.

Like the series broadcast earlier in the year - which is coming back early next - the show is a mixture of stand-up and interviews, in which Millican covers all things concerning telly. The stand-up routines are good in themselves, but this is to be expected because it's what she does best. The only problem's that because this is television, she can't be as rude as she is on stage.

However, the interviews allow Millican to be rude in a different way. In this case she gets to ask all sorts of cheeky questions to her guests (Hugh Bonneville, Shane Richie - complete with an attempt to kiss each other via a giant TV screen - and her father Philip). It puts me in mind of the character Mrs. Merton, but without the need for a comedy character. The guests know they're going to be mocked, so in a way everyone gets what they want.

The other thing I like is that the special is less gimmicky that the first series, with less reliance on props. The closest to a funny prop in this show was Sarah's Christmas outfit and some mince pies. Hopefully this more simplistic approach is continued in series two.

Michael Grade has recently become BBC Four's go-to-guy on all matters concerning variety theatre.

Having already given in-depth guides to the history of variety and the music hall, this Christmas he's covering panto, looking into the origins of the pantomime dame character. He traces its routes from Italian theatre, to its rise in popularity lead by the great clown Joseph Grimaldi.

However, what will be of interest to most people reading this, by which I mean comedy fans in the north, is that the biggest panto dame is from the region. Berwick Kaler is a Geordie, and has written and starred in every panto at York's Theatre Royal for 33 years. He keeps the scripts fresh and topical, but always starts with the same four words: "Me babbies, me bairns!" Watching his performances and devotion to the genre, you can't help but want to see him perform live, although demand for tickets would be so high the chances of doing so would probably be negligible.

This show was diverting, entertaining, and somewhat education. It certainly gave me a new application for an artform that I'm not that keen on personally. However it's good to see some peculiar British forms of entertainment still flourish.

I can't say I'm fond of children's comedy. I'm probably the only comedy critic who isn't that fused on Horrible Histories, I don't watch CBBC and I've never watched CBeebies before in my life - until this week.

The Cow That Almost Missed Christmas, a one-off show on CBeebies, is a comic retelling of the nativity story. The story is told by animals in or visiting Bethlehem as Mary and Joseph arrive into town. Known that something big is happening around town, an excited cow called Marjorie (Isy Suttie) and her chicken friend Brian (Johnny Vegas) sneak away from their home to attend the 'big party'.

On first viewing, I tried to prevent my inner QI pedant from wanting to correct all the commonly held mistakes about the nativity story (the fact there wasn't a census; there were no animals present at the birth of Christ; there weren't three "kings" - they're wise men), but after getting all that under control, I really did enjoy it.

There's the visual humour - such as the sight of Brian the chicken wearing a leotard and a giant afro, and Mary's donkey playing cards while she is visited by the Archangel Gabriel - to the rather clever jokes. For example, the chickens insist their stable is a barn because it has both a manger and an outside loo. In another scene, Marjorie askes how far some weary travellers have come: "Rome? Alexandria? Milton Keynes?"

This may be on a small channel devoted to the under-fives, but The Cow That Almost Missed Christmas is a funny show that you can watch with everyone. Certainly worth a watch if you haven't seen it already.

Part of the 4Funnies season, this latest pilot appears to have a few things that could well make it into a series. For starters it's rather heart-warming, it's amusing, but the main reason Channel 4 will probably turn it a full series is because Ricky Gervais is executive producer (that's pretty much how PhoneShop got commissioned).

Created by stand-up David Earl, the title character, Brian Gittins, is a taxi driver working in a small, slightly oddball town. It's not every place that regularly has someone wearing only their underpants walking around hold a large bunch of balloons. The story follows his working life, in his taxi which keeps having constant faults, whether it is the horn activating whenever he turns the steering wheel, or the alarm going off when he walks about ten feet away from the vehicle.

The main plot concerns Brian's attempts, with help from his student daughter Lucy (Camille Ucan), to try and ask out his controller Cheryl (Ashley McGuire) out on a date. However, the funniest moments are when Brian is making his journeys with his passengers. For example there's the sequence when Brian has to deliver a woman in labour to a hospital, but because of the taxi's faults it keeps turning on the radio, leading to a chorus of "Rabbit" by Chas and Dave.

This pilot seems to have a little bit of everything. A bit of slapstick, a bit of romance, a bit of realism thrown in. Gittins has all the makings of a decent sitcom.

Sky's been on a bit of a role in terms of comedy commissions. While most of the notable ones have been on Sky1 and Sky Atlantic, other channels have been making their own shows, with this one coming from Sky Arts 1.

A Young Doctor's Notebook is based on a collection of short stories made by the Soviet novelist Mikhail Bulgakov, most famous for his book The Master and Margarita. The story's told via extracts from an old doctor in 1930s Moscow (played by Mad Men star Jon Hamm), about his experiences working in tiny village hospital in the middle of nowhere just after his graduation in 1917 (his younger self being played by Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame).

The opening story see the young doctor arrive at his new practice and dealing with his much more experience staff: Anna (Vicki Pepperdine), a midwife who is obsessed with the doctor's late predecessor Leopold Leopoldovich; fellow midwife Pelageya (Rosie Cavaliero) and the boring feldsher (Adam Godley). As the story goes on, the young doctor finds himself mysteriously in conflict with his older self, who keeps telling him what to do.

This opening episode was highly enjoyable. I've read some of Bulgakov's work before (i.e. Heart of a Dog) so I know a bit about his life and the book's in some ways based on his own experiences as a doctor in the Russian countryside. It does make you wonder exactly how much of it's based on stuff which occurred to him as there's quite a lot of gore. One of the most horrific yet funny scenes involves the young doctor trying to extract a tooth from a patient, which first leads him to drag the patient around the floor, before doing something I don't think it would be wise to mention now.

It's not just the slapstick which is good, but the characters too, especially the staff the doctor has to work with. The feldsher for example makes a study of how many things you can possibly fit into the young doctor's luggage (he counts socks individually).

Many people will be watching A Young Doctor's Notebook just to see the high-profile leads, but there's much more to this programme than just the cast.

This is a new series covering everything that's been going on in 2012 starring John Bishop. Well, I say new. This series appears to be John Bishop's Britain remarketed.

Like its predecessor, Bishop covers a range of different topics using both stand-up and sketches. However, this time around the sketches are all performed by the sketch trope Pappy's, and there are no pre-filmed segments with celebrities or members of the public.

I must say that this worked rather well for most of the time. I especially liked the opening sketch about the Greek economy, which featured two Greek men trying to mend their broken plates to save money. However, I was annoyed by the pasty tax sketch which featured another lazy John Prescott gag. You'd think we've moved on from such a basic gag, or at least changed that target to someone more current (no doubt that would be Eric Pickles)...

However, there's one problem I do have with this programme and all programmes of this type, really. Namely it doesn't cover all of the year. Bishop's show aired in November, which is just ridiculous. I don't want to sound like someone from the Daily Mail, but these review programmes just seem to keep coming around earlier every year. It's just not right...