Jack Dee

Jack Dee nearly makes Jedward cry on Buzzcocks

Jack Dee left X Factor twins Jedward on the brink of tears after bombarding them with insults while recording Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

H is for hero - which is what Stephen Fry has become to millions of TV viewers and Twitterers who hang on his every tweet. And it's also the letter that'll be the theme of the brand new series eight.

Regular panellist Alan Davies - who admits the endless repeats of this show on Dave even get up his nose - resumes his role of The Thudding Voice Of Ignorance. And he'll be joined by Phill Jupitus, Jack Dee and Ross Noble who'll all be aiming to come up with Quite Interesting answers to the show's posers.

But QI would be nothing without its genial headmaster Fry who sits atop this mountain of knowledge like an erudite genie. His trivia lessons often end up being quite a lot more interesting than the brave stabs at comedy.

Stephen Fry fans, prepare to hug yourselves with glee - RT's cover star is going to be everywhere this autumn and winter. The second, eagerly anticipated volume of his memoirs, The Fry Chronicles, is published this week (it's been too long since Moab Is My Washpot in 1997), he's doing gigs at the Royal Albert Hall and elsewhere and, of course, he's hosting this new series of QI. At last! We no longer have to survive on endless re-runs on Dave, so endless that we devotees know all the questions and all the correct answers and aren't caught out by the klaxon any more. So let's welcome the newness. As always, expect an erudite, if occasionally unnecessarily smutty delight, as we reach the letter "H". Genial perpetual QI loser Alan Davies returns, along with another regular, the cheery Phill Jupitus. Making up the quartet are the dolorous Jack Dee and Geordie comic Ross Noble, wild of hair and even wilder of imagination.

The closest you'll ever be to diving into an encyclopaedia and then surface, drenched in knowledge and needing to wipe facts about the Periodic Table from the corners of your eyes, is by watching this still-spiffing comedy panel show. Tonight Stephen Fry will set Alan Davies, Ross Noble, Jack Dee, and Phill Jupitus questions relating to the letter H, which means obscure questions on hacky sacks, the Roman soldier Horatio, and H out of Steps.

Who is tvBite's least favourite person on QI this week? Alan Davies? KLAXON NOISE. Why, this week it's Phill Jupitus. Phil's 25th appearance on the show brings him level with Jo Brand as most-used guest. He moves above Alan as most annoying person because of that book where he claims to have invented great radio, despite presenting one of the most irritating shows ever. Maybe DJs should be allowed to choose their own music but they should also SHUT UP and not carry on in an annoying nasal whine. Even more annoying, Phill shouldn't have even been on the show but Sean Lock was stranded on the Isle Of Man.

Anyway, that's by the by. We like QI, in general and it is back with series H. (By the way, prepare yourself for an autumn of wistful mellow fruitiness because Stephen Fry will be everywhere. He has a book to flog and a live Albert Hall show to publicise). The episode is titled Hodge Podge, the other guests are Jack Dee, Ross Noble and over all there are many worse ways to begin your weekend.

Comedians ribbing each other about far-fetched tales - it's what Friday-night telly was made for. And this week's gathering of deceivers and doubters may be the sharpest yet. Joining chalk-and-cheese team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack are Ruth Jones (of Gavin & Stacey fame), Jason Manford (The One Show) and comedians Jack Dee and Peter Serafinowicz. In short, every one's a winner. Tonight's best round involves a mystery guest called Ian. The question is, did he save Jones's tortoise from death, sell batteries to David Mitchell via eBay, or get attacked by schoolchildren alongside Manford? Finding out is a blast. Plus there's a new round where host Rob Brydon has a go at fooling the teams himself. But did he really once steal Catherine Zeta-Jones's dinner money?

Full marks to whoever booked the panellists on tonight's Would I Lie To You?. It's a solid gold line-up this week. Joining David Mitchell, Lee Mack and Rob Brydon are Ruth Jones, Jason Manford, Jack Dee and Peter Serafinowicz - taking a break from what is practically a full-time job of filling the Twitter-verse with surreal one-liners.

This week they're all bringing their best poker faces to some very tall tales involving Ray Charles, a tortoise, a human sausage, a cheese and onion sandwich, Lee Mack's life expectancy, and David Mitchell's battery-buying habits.

And Rob Brydon's getting in on the act as well with his own true or false questions - did he really once steal Catherine Zeta-Jones' lunch money?

The regeneration of the host of I'm Sorry I Haven't Got A Clue is complete: Jack Dee has finally fully transformed into the grouch we know and ... the grouch we know. Just A Minute returns next week, a handover Jack celebrated with a game entitled Just A Minim - "the teams' musical version of the longrunning wireless favourite hosted by Nicholas Parsons. I never miss him."

Earlier the teams had supplied us with some new definitions - internet is what the England team didn't do at the World Cup, asterisk is the chances of being hit by an asteroid and fallacy is "like a penis". The last gag was from David Mitchell - brilliant panel guest as ever, but I'm beginning to worry about him. Hasn't he got a home to go to? And if he has, does it contain a panel show in every room?

Dave Allen broke into British TV on Val Doonican's BBC TV show in the mid-1960s, soon graduating to a series of his own where a relaxed raconteur style, cigarette in one hand, glass of whisky in the other, distracted from his daring in choice of topics. Sex, death and religion were well within his witty compass and all, from time to time, got him into trouble with the press. He's been followed by observational comics such as Jack Dee, Dara O'Briain and tonight's presenter Ed Byrne, but he was funnier than any of them.

Even at its height in the Nineties, Shooting Stars was an acquired taste: some found it gloriously surreal, others thought it annoyingly puerile. Nowadays, though, it feels dated and superfluous. Still there are some enjoyable moments, mainly involving the lugubrious scorekeeper Angelos Epithemiou. Tonight, hosts Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and captains "Ulri-ka-ka-ka" Jonsson and Jack Dee are joined by Strictly dancer Brendan Cole, cultishly incompetent football pundit Chris Kamara, war reporter John Simpson and Tulisa from pop group N-Dubz.