Ian Wolf

For those unaware, Sorry, I've Got No Head is a sketch show broadcast on the CBBC Channel.

Despite this being a children's show, it's surprising in many ways. For starters, there is quite a lot of good comic talent involved. Amongst those starring in the show include Marek Larwood, Justin Edwards, James Bachman, Marcus Brigstocke, Mel Giedroyc, Nick Mohammed, David Armand and Graham Norton in a voice-over.

The sketches include Jasmine and Prudith, a pair of eccentric posh women who believe everything costs a thousand pounds; Ross the schoolboy from the Outer Hebrides whose school has been badly damaged in a storm and is thus he is the only one who attends; the easily-scared Fearless Vikings; and The Witchfinder General who accuses anyone of being a witch if he doesn't get his own way.

Another interesting thing about Sorry, I've Got No Head is that it has no laughter track. Most TV sketch shows tend to have one, and you would expect a children's sketch show to do so as well, but this doesn't.

In a way the show treats the audience a bit more like adults than many other sketch comedies. The laughter track provokes you into laughing, which might explain why shows such as That Mitchell and Webb Look and The Armstrong and Miller Show have them, to encourage the viewers to laugh along and keep watching. Sorry, I've Got No Head doesn't see the need for one. Perhaps it's because this show is less of a risk as it's on a digital channel for children.

Sorry, I've Got No Head is quite a diverting show, which in its own way is entertaining for people of all ages. And if you're bit a embarrassed about watching it with other people, you can always look at it on the iPlayer as if it were a guilty pleasure.

The latest offering by Dave is the new quiz hosted by The Pub Landlord, Al Murray, in which contestants fight it out to win the grand prize of a frozen chicken. The big question is, is this show a turkey?

It started off well enough, with Murray interacting with his audience like he does in his normal stand-up act, picking on individual people. However, it went a bit downhill when he introduced the "Celebrity" Top Table, which consisted of comedian Olivia Lee, footballer Peter Shilton, and Dominic Littlewood who... does whatever he does.

Also there are Murray's assistants. One is Mr. Giblets, who is a man dressed up as a frozen chicken, who is no doubt glad his face is covered to save him the humiliation of people recognising him in the street. There is also Zoe Salmon, who I have never heard of before and I will probably never hear of again outside of the context of this programme.

With regards to the quiz itself, there were some fun categories (e.g., "Salt", "Body Matters", "Moustaches") and featured questions like "which of three members of the audience carried the most change", and "how many pickled eggs were there in a jar that Frank Skinner was holding". There was also the physical "Last Chance Saloon" challenge which featured contestants playing shuffleboard using various items of pub grub.

While there are good moments this show is mostly just OK. What we want from a show with Al Murray is him to do his stand-up in character. While we get some of that, it isn't enough. Why does there have to be a quiz? Can we not just have a show in which Al Murray just does his stand-up please?

On one final note, a bit of advice for Murray - don't end the show by singing "Eye of the Tiger", it just sounds naff.

This week saw the return of Stewart Lee's less-than-conventional stand-up show on BBC Two.

If you want to know who unconventional it is, let me put it this way - the show was meant to be about charity, but instead it consisted of Lee talking about crisps (he repeated the word "crisps" over 100 times during the show), and the programme had only four jokes which Lee deliberately deconstructed, giving advanced warning of when they were due to appear and explaining the jokes in detail.

This show is therefore not going to please everybody. Having said that I fail to understand why the BBC decided to broadcast the show at 23.20, where it would fail to get a larger audience. At least there is the iPlayer.

There were some changes to the format. Most of the sketches had gone. There was only one sketch at the end of the episode featuring Scottish comedian Arnold Brown. However, the original red button feature of the programme, in which Lee was "interviewed" by Armando Iannucci, now appears in the main show, breaking up the stand-up routines.

I am not sure whether this new format works. Maybe it is best to let it settle down for a little while, but I quite liked the original sketches, primarily because they featured comedians not usually seen on TV such as Simon Munnery and at one point Jerry Sadowitz as Jimmy Savile.

It is however a funny, interesting and above-all clever show. Lee makes you laugh and also think about the way comedy is presented. Just a shame it is on so late.

The award winning comedy thriller by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton has finally returned with a full series, following on from its debut in 2009 and the Halloween special last year.

The second series carries on from where the last left off, which ended with a bomb blowing up in an abandoned hospital and the search of a missing locket. I shall not reveal all the details of the bombing for those who have yet to watch it, but out of all the people in the room where the bomb was at the time, two were killed, one had a broken arm, one ended up with perforated eardrums making them slightly deaf, one was so traumatised they cannot speak or move, one is now wearing a neck brace, one was unharmed and the other is currently unknown about.

We also meet up with some new characters, including a librarian who is horrified that a book may be returned later and who is haunted by the sight of a terrifying silent singer that only he can see; and a make-up artist marrying a gay Iranian man to help him stay in the country.

This series is brilliant, with all its cunning twists and turns, but also with its devilish humour. For example, one of the characters talks about a "yawning donkey", describing it as a euphemism similar to "wizard's sleeve".

I think the best way to describe the series is simply watch it. There is no way a reviewer would be able to talk about it too much without giving the plot away - which is somewhat annoying for me, I can tell you.

Gigglebox Weekly #8 - Stewart Lee, Psychoville

This week Ian Wolf tackles some stand-up and something sinister.

I must confess that I hadn't seen the previous two editions of this Only Fools and Horses prequel. It's a shame because I rather enjoyed this (most probably) final outing.

In this episode, the young Del Boy (James Buckley) decides to find his fortune by going into movies, proposing his cinematic masterpiece Dracula on the Moon. Meanwhile, gangster and father of Rodney, Freddie "The Frog" Robdal (Nicholas Lyndhurst) is trying to avoid being arrested after a robbery he carried at during The Jolly Boys Outing.

The thing you have to remember when watching Rock & Chips is not to treat it as a sitcom but as a comedy drama. There are no real belly laughs, but a few chuckles along the way. At times it is rather tender. It is also ruder. I cannot recall an episode of Only Fools which included the phrase: "F*** off".

The series is basically the backdrop to everything we have already seen in the original classic series, with many references to the Only Fools, such as Del's fondness for the song "Old Shep".

Sadly, this looks to be the final edition of the series following the death of writer John Sullivan, to whom the episode was dedicated to. Of course they could always get another writer to continue it, but there seems little point. As it is a prequel, we already know what happens. We know that Robdal is blown up during a botched raid, that Joan (Kellie Bright) dies young, that Reg (Shaun Dingwall) leaves the family when Rodney's aged two, and that it is not the last time Del has an idea for a movie - but like Dracula on the Moon, There's a Rhino Loose in the City also never took off.

It is a pleasing hour of well written material, and John Sullivan will be sadly missed.

In terms of reviewing QI, anyone who knows me will know that this is an easy job as far as I'm concerned, as QI is my favourite comedy show.

On Easter Monday a "VG" edition was shown, which consists mainly of old clips of the previous series and some new bits thrown in. Among the quite interesting things mentioned include the correct use of poisoned darts (whatever you do, do not do what Bill Bailey did and blow the dart straight upwards).

As this edition of QI was basically a clip show, there's not that much to say about it, except that this and the edition on Bank Holiday Monday will be the final ever episodes of QI to premier on BBC One before the series moves back to its old home on BBC Two.

For many fans, the show's move from BBC Two to the more mainstream BBC One was a mistake, with some believing that the show would be dumbed-down. Although the people behind the series claimed that the first batch of episodes were edited before the decision to move, critics claimed that show had lost its edge.

I think the move back is the best thing to do, provided they still keep broadcasting the extended "XL" editions as well. Still, I will be wishing QI goodbye from BBC One this week.

I wasn't planning to review this show but things changed for reasons you will soon discover.

The long running satirical panel game, currently hosted by Sandi Toksvig, has been running since 1977, and last week saw the start of its 74th series. This week's guests included regular performers Jeremy Hardy and Susan Calman, semi-regular Will Smith, and journalist Matthew Parris.

There were some topics that you would expect to be covered, such as the royal wedding, super injunctions and Libya, but then it came to the subject of tuition fees, and how most universities are raising them to extortionate rates.

Among those are my old university, Teesside University in Middlesbrough, which this week announced it was planning to put up its fees of £8,500. As you would expect, they took the mickey out of the region. Parris said that what was actually going on was that they were actually selling the whole university for £8,500.

Smith said that £8,500 tuition fees were a status thing, but argued that if this was the reason that they should just change the name to "Oxbridge University of the North" or "Hogwarts".

It cost the university £20,000 to change its logo and the name of the establishment to "Teesside University" from "University of Teesside", so £8,500 is nothing, really. Toksvig at the end claimed that if anyone was offended, the £8,500 includes, "a whole row of terrace houses."

To be honest with you, I was shocked when I heard them talking about Teesside in such a fashion, because I am amazed that anyone on BBC Radio 4 has even heard of Teesside.

I didn't mind The News Quiz mocking my old university, though. I'm just glad it got the publicity, even if it was not the most glowing publicity. To be honest, when I heard that the fees were going up, I was on Twitter arguing the raise was impossible; because no-one in Teesside has £8,500. (It's true - I'm currently writing this on a Windows 98 in a skip near a Starbucks, leeching onto the Wi-Fi).

The News Quiz show is still entertaining after so many years, and because it is on at 6.30pm, it mocks the news two-and-a-half hours before Have I Got News for You does. Well worth a listen.

This brand new sketch show sees The Fast Show and Down The Line star Simon Day perform as some of his best known creations at The Mallard, a small provincial theatre with not that much room in it. If you want an idea on sort of place The Mallard is, it's best put by the woman in charge of the box office admitting to adding the phrase "Must see" to acts because the tickets are not shifting.

This week, Day starred as his Yorkshire poet persona Geoffrey Allerton, reading some of his poems and extracts from his memoir Marking Time. Day/Allerton's poetry is excellent, making humorous comments on inner city life and going to art-house movies.

His sombre childhood memories were even funnier, covering the bad relationship Allerton had with his father. He mentions that his father, "threw a jar of Marmite at me," and that he showed him a picture of a naked woman, or as Day/Allerton puts it, the, "lady with the lower beard."

The show is not just about Day and his character, but also of the regular staff and visitors of The Mallard. There is surly Rastafarian technician Goose (Felix Dexter) who gets annoyed about being given jobs outside of his remit, the Leeds-born boss Ron Bone (Simon Greenall) who mocks Allerton's supposedly posh background, and there are the two posh mothers (Arabella Weir and Catherine Shepherd) talking about the problems of employing a "frog" as a nanny.

This has all the marks of becoming a really good series. Future episodes will see Day performing as reformed convict Tony Beckton and his Fast Show classic Tommy Cockles.