Ian Wolf

Having recently come back from the Fringe this week I thought to myself: "Do you know what I need? To watch some more stand-up comedy."

BBC Three has been broadcasting a selection of Fringe programmes. One of these is Edinburgh Comedy Fest, hosted by Jon Richardson, featuring a selection of stand-up comedians and musical comedians performing at the Fringe.

Alongside Richardson were Josh Widdicombe, Neil Delamere, Abandoman, Seann Walsh, Mark Watson, Russell Kane, David O'Doherty, Andrew Lawrence, Ron Vaudey, Jimeoin, Tom Stade, Ed Byrne and Shappi Khorsandi. I don't know about you, but to me that seems a bit too much.

This programme only lasted an hour, and there were 14 different acts. On average they performed less than 5 minutes each. Also, as far as I know, Vaudey isn't even performing at the Fringe. What's more, it was not exactly that diverse. Granted there were comedians from abroad (Canadian, Irish, Iranian), but there was only one woman performing and one non-white person performing - and that was the same person.

In this short format, some comedians did come across better than others. Widdicombe, Delamere and O'Doherty got the laughs, while Vaudey seemed to be a bit flat. I think it would've been a better show if there were more episodes that were of a shorter length. And more variety in terms of style of performers and their backgrounds would be nice, too.

Trollied is the first of several new comedy shows being made by Sky this season.

The show is set in a supermarket, looking at the lives of a north-western branch of Valco ("Serves you right"). The characters include Julie (Jane Horrocks), the current deputy manager who currently is holding the job temporarily, or as she puts it "interimming" (and not "into rimming"); butcher Andy (Mark Addy), a man who can tell a type of sausage by simply resting it on his shoulder; and Margaret (Rita May), a pensioner who appears to be away with the fairies.

The series began with a double bill, which probably helped as it gave viewers who weren't sure about the show the chance to see how it would develop.

Before the series began some questions had already been thrown up by the critics. For starters, how come no-one had set a sitcom in a supermarket before, as it seems an ideal location - an environment from which the staff cannot escape from, with various layers of hierarchy, including managers, checkout staff and stockers. I think I know why such a setting has never done before - cost. Supermarkets are large buildings, and normally there is no way a supermarket would let a TV crew in there for fear of disturbing the business, so you have to build a huge set.

Luckily, when it comes to creating big-scale TV shows, Sky has experience. They're responsible for bringing Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels into real-life. Compared to creating a world resting on the backs of four elephants standing on the shell of a giant turtle, a supermarket should be simplicity itself. Mind you, it is easy to do when your channel is owned by the world's second largest media company (after Disney), a group which owns two of the most popular animated sitcoms in the world (The Simpsons and Family Guy), some of the biggest scale dramas currently on TV at the moment (House), and owns more newspapers than you can shake a hacked telephone at.

Trollied also has other problems when it comes to critical reception. Namely, as it is a workplace sitcom it will be compared to The Office and therefore everyone will look down on it. But why stop there? It is also a retail sitcom, so you could compare it to Open All Hours or Are Your Being Served? for that matter. Just because there are similar sitcoms to it does not mean that it will be rubbish.

In terms of laughs, there were a few - enough to give it promise - but whether or not it can sustain that I don't know.

This new ITV1 documentary sees Ronnie Corbett meeting up with some of his favourite comedians, past and present, while also looking back at key comedy moments.

As a result, this programme, on the whole, is not going to suit a die-hard comedy fan; because it covers lots of things that they will already know about, such as how The Two Ronnies came together, or the early radio history of Little Britain. This show is really more for the casual comedy observer who wants to learn more.

One thing that got me thinking, however, was that this first episode was all about comedy partnerships. However, Corbett didn't actually meet up with any double acts - just half of them, namely Miranda Hart, Stephen Merchant, David Mitchell, Matt Lucas and John Cleese (although admittedly there is a very good reason why Cleese's comedy partner was not on, seeing as how Graham Chapman has been dead for over 20 years).

If anything, this show seemed to be a comedian's version of Jim'll Fix It, with Corbett giving many of his comedians some exciting experiences. For example he allowed Miranda Hart to walk on to a stage where Morecambe and Wise had one of their greatest ever stage shows to the tune of "Bring Me Sunshine". Another segment saw Corbett getting Merchant a brand new tailor-made suit; another featured Corbett doing a Little Britain radio sketch, attempting to do Vicky Pollard - badly.

To be honest I was almost expecting Corbett to be sitting in his chair, holding a cigar and saying something along the lines of: "Now then, now then, I've got a letter from a Jim Davidson of London what says; 'Dear Ronnie, I haven't been on telly for years due to no-one liking my act because it is racist. So could you fix it for me to appear on your show?' Well, goodness gracious, unfortunately Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain does have a very tight budget, so Jim how would you like it if Ronnie fixed it for you to sing with the black and white minstrels?"

Having said all this I did like some of the archive clips that they showed, graphically onto any flat surface such as walls, clothing displays and theatre curtains. Some of them also featured clips I hadn't heard before such as one clip from The Goon Show which I found absolutely hilarious.

So, this show does contain the odd comedy laugh that you won't have heard of 50 times already, but other than that it is just a series of interviews and pleasant surprises.

BBC One's My Favourite Joke features various comics talking about their favourite comedy moments. It's like a Channel 4 poll but without the public interfering. It is the sort of show you would expect Stewart Lee to make a satirical routine about, and if Del falling through the bar in Only Fools and Horses is picked as one of those moments, no doubt he will.

In the latest episode, the moments chosen were Lee Evans' Bohemian Rhapsody mime; the scene in Rising Damp in which Rigsby uses burning wood to charm Miss Jones; the American comic Sam Kinison ranting against his ex-wife; Lucille Ball on roller skates, and Andre Previn's performance with Morecambe and Wise.

The thing is with these shows is that is tempting to say that they are a waste of airtime, and that it would be better to make an actual show that wasn't just full of clips. People say this all the time, but let's be honest, if they did make a show for that slot the chances are it probably won't be anything decent. It would just probably just be tat.

It's rather like people complaining about there being too many repeats on the BBC. Rubbish! In my view, there's not enough. There is a simple way to tell if there is, namely by looking at the entire schedule and pointing out all the awful TV shows that are out there. Scrap them, try to make some decent new shows in some slots and put some repeats of shows that you know are decent in the others. Look at the recent repeat run of Only Fools on daytime BBC One. It's been getting big ratings. Rather than put on some programme about property development on, just put on Dad's Army. No-one in their right mind would object to that.

Getting back to the show in hand, I suppose the main merit of these shows is that there will be quite a few comedy clips on My Favourite Joke that people in Britain many not have seen before. I've never seen The Lucy Show for example, and the roller skating routine is a very good piece of slapstick. So these shows do sometimes introduce to new experiences, which can only be a good thing.

The Liverpudlian returns for a second series of his show, mixing stand-up, sketches and interviews, covering a different subject affecting the British every week.

In this week's episode, Bishop covered the subjects of "Music and Fashion". Bishop is rather Peter Kay-esque in his methods. Quite a lot of his humour is nostalgic, looking back at things from when he was young, such as his routine about going into Woolworth's and buying a record.

This is also evident during his interview section which featured among other things people talking about records they have brought and their guilty pleasures. One pair of identical twins admitted buying a record by The Smurfs (speaking of which, now that The Smurfs have been made into a 3D film, what's Mark Kermode going to compare them unfavourably too?).

For me, the best parts of the show were the sketches. There were two sketches in this week's episode, one covering the time Bishop went to see U2 during their "Make Poverty History" page, and what was the perfect way to get back at them; and other being about Bishop's confusion about the phrase "kiss vigorously" when he was filming Skins alongside Ronni Ancona.

These bits were simply brilliant. The images depicted were hilarious, as were the gags. When you think that the sketch had ended, it didn't, getting even better as it went along.

A very enjoyable and funny programme. Like Peter Kay, but not so full of himself.

Gigglebox weekly #13 - Show Me The Funny

This week I have decided to devote the entire column to just the one show: the new comedy reality programme Show Me the Funny, hosted by Jason Manford. My review can be summed up in a few short words, but I'm not allowed to use those sorts of words so I have to elaborate.

Paul Sinha, Britain's most famous gay Hindu GP stand-up, stars and writes in this special one-off show about cricket and national identity, a week before the next test series between England and India.

This was inspired by "The Tebbit Test", when in April 1990 Norman Tebbit said that immigrants who came to live in England that did not support the England cricket team, but instead supported the team of their home land, were not patriotic. Sinha, along with what he claims is the entire immigrant population of England, supports the team of his parents home land, India.

The stand-up looks at the various conflicting issues with regards to supporting India in cricket, but supporting England in football and other sports. Part of the reason for this being that while India excel in cricket, they tend not to excel in almost every other sport (except kabaddi).

Highlights for me include what Sinha refers to as "My mum and dad's dinner party story" in which India had to bat for two days solid in order to save the series, and by the time Sinha's parents arrived at the ground that morning India has already lost. There is also the story of Sinha getting tickets to see the 1983 Cricket World Cup from his head teacher who smugly said that India would not be there. India won the final, beating England in the semi.

Sinha's conclusion is that we love to support the underdog, a notion I can appreciate. I support Middlesbrough F.C., partly because I'm from Teesside, partly out of a sense of duty due to the fact my parents first met at a Boro game, but also due to the fact that I, and I suspect the majority of Boro fans as well, are secretly fond of the fact that Middlesbrough is somewhat rubbish.

We will never admit it in public, but we all secretly proud of the fact we are over-polluted, mostly poor, and have a food dish - a parmo - which has Scotsmen looking at envy going: "Bloody hell, that can give you a coronary with just one bite - and it hasn't even been deep fried!"

After a two year gap since the first series went out, series two of the Pozzitive Productions sketch show Bigipedia began this week - and for me it has been worth the wait, as this is one of my favourite radio shows.

For those not familiar with the show, Bigipedia is a parody of Wikipedia featuring all sorts of odd articles, debates and features. The last series ended with Bigipedia enslaving 88% of the human population and creating a gigantic hive mind in the Philippines, but the new upgraded 2.0 version has reportedly gotten rid of these problems.

Before I go on I should point out that other than the great quality of humour in this show, I have other reasons for liking Bigipedia, namely that I have helped co-writer Matt Kirshen with matters relating to Wikipedia and Bigipedia. I tried to get myself credited as a consultant on the show - I didn't, but it was worth a try none the less!

Bigipedia still retains some of its original features, such as its sponsor, the nightmarish wine-like drink Chianto (the only drink which is the antidote to itself), a new range of Bronson's baby products (such as diving bells), and children's section Bigikids which offers some unusual and disturbing advice on how to avoid being attacked by sharks.

Among the articles which featured in this week's episodes include Plinky, a 1960s educational children's show about wildlife that was so confusing nobody had any idea what animal Plinky was and therefore the show had no educational merit. There was also Elvis Presley's segmented pip worm, which was the real reason behind his famous singing voice.

However, for me, the best sketches in Bigipedia are the "Disambiguation" pages. The format for these sketches is very simple, but it pays off. You simply come up with a term, which helps serve as a punchline for a series of jokes later on. For example, the disambiguation page on "Circus complaint" has articles linking to a self-made spandex millionare, and the stamp of cannibal quality.

One cannot help but admire the writing that goes into this show. There is so much content that you cannot let your concentration slip for a moment. A show which grabs your attention so much has to be good.

This is a special hour-long comedy drama about the French Revolution, written by and featuring the usually Victorian-based sketch troupe consisting of David Reed, Thom Tuck and Humphrey Ker.

However they were not the main stars of this special. These were Richard E. Grant playing the role of Robespierre, leader of the Terror; and Sally Hawkins as Marie-Therese, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The main story is an imagining of a conversation between the two that was never recorded.

The programme tells the story of the Revolution in a humorous way, although the history is very much a back drop to jokes and characters best described as daft. For example, Marie-Therese complains about the book she has been given to read while she has been in prison - an atlas so out of date that it does not include Spain. Also there are sketches featuring peasants having stone soup, because eating shoes is a luxury.

However, out of all the characters that appeared in the programme, my personal favourite was Marie-Therese's brother Louis-Charles (aka Louis XVII) who was portrayed as being rather dim and naïve. For example, he gets too excited about helping France's poor so he wants to donate all of his toys. In the end he gets a job making shoes, but gets beaten up by his master for making shoes which are too decedent.

There are other nice moments, like how the French revolutionary calendar would result in problems for Father Christmas; and also some nice quotes such as Robespierre's remark that: "You can't make a crème brûlée without burning some sugar."

It was an entertaining hour, although I would recommend that if you're looking for a comedy show which is more educational in its dealing of the French revolution, you may want to look at Mark Steel's Viva la Revolution.

This three part series sees the Carry On actress look at three different female comedians. However, the first she has profiled is one that I had never heard of until now: Hylda Baker.

For those like me who were ignorant of her work, Lancashire-born comedian Baker was most famous for starring in the sitcom Nearest and Dearest alongside Jimmy Jewel (they played a bickering brother and sister), and for her stage act in which she played a Northern gossip, accompanied by stooge Cynthia, who was always played by a man in drag much bigger than her (one version of Cynthia was played by Matthew Kelly).

Amongst the things I learned about Baker was that she seemed to be quite egotistical. For example, she never allowed any of her Cynthias to do interview or talk to the public. When Baker appeared on This is Your Life, the Cynthia at the time revealed himself. Baker was furious at him and had him sacked. Also, like many sitcom stories, in Nearest and Dearest the main actors were arguing both on and off the camera. Baker and Jewel were constantly insulting each other. Jewel thought that Baker was unfunny and Baker thought she deserved top billing.

However, there was a fair bit of tragedy in her comic life as well. Her marriages failed, she had two entopic pregnancies after which it was discovered that she could not have children, so adopted two pet monkeys as pets (one of which ate all her tax info). Her memory began to fail so she had to use cue cards, and in her later life she suffered from Alzheimer's, eventually dying of pneumonia at the age of 81. The biggest tragedy of course is that she is no longer remembered.

This documentary certain shone a light on someone I had never heard of before and made me more curious to find out more info, which for me is the ultimate sign of any good documentary.