Jack Dee

Shooting Stars 'back in autumn'

Surreal comedy quiz show Shooting Stars will return to the BBC this autumn, according to its stars Vic Reeves and Matt Lucas.

Reeves, 50 - real name Jim Moir - told the Daily Express the show would return with Ulrika Jonsson and Jack Dee as team hosts.

Iranu indeed: Shooting Stars is back

Reeves and Mortimer's anarchic game show Shooting Stars is to return for a full series on BBC2 following a one-off special last Christmas.

Vic and Bob will be reunited with the team captains from the Christmas special, Ulrika Johnson and newcomer Jack Dee, for the 6 x 30-minute series. Matt Lucas is also onboard as drumming man-baby George Dawes.

Three into one can go, but they won't replace Humph

It is a tribute to the magnificent Humphrey Lyttelton that his replacement as host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue has been named as Stephen Fry. And Rob Brydon. And Jack Dee. A revolving comic trinity, in place of the one god.

Fry, Dee and Brydon take on Clue

Stephen Fry, Jack Dee and Rob Brydon are to share hosting duties for a new series of BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue this summer. The series, which begins recording in April, will be aired in June and will be the show's first appearance since host Humphrey Lyttelton died in 2008.

One of the few reliable British sitcoms around, Jack Dee's unfulfilled comic Rick Spleen has a wince-inducing talent for skewering himself. Funny as those mishaps are, Rick's interactions with sullen housekeeper Magda (Anna Crilly) are the real comedy gold.

Don't worry if you missed the 2007 pilot for this series. There's a brief explanation at the start of the first episode. Basically, Rob (Daniel Mays) was dumped by Laura (Spooks' Miranda Raison), and later gleaned from a celeb mag that she was dating Duncan From Blue (played by the man himself). Not only that, they were going to marry. And Rob's been invited to the wedding.

Hacked off that he's been replaced by 'that skating b*****d', Rob is convinced Duncan From Blue (that's his full name in this, not Duncan James) is out to get him. So he decides to prove he's better than DFB and have revenge on his ex by turning up at her wedding with the sexiest woman he can con into being his girlfriend.

It's a simple yet effective idea - for now anyway - and Rob is an entertaining central character - a younger, less grouchy version of Jack Dee's Rick Spleen.

The comedy isn't perfect, and with coarse language it won't be everybody's cup of tea. But if you still miss Teachers, the young, ballsy characters in this should raise a smile.

And there's always the eye candy to enjoy - as well as Duncan James, the show stars former EastEnders heartthrob Nigel Harman. And for the fellas, for this week only, is guest star Susie Amy, who will fulfil many a redblooded man's fantasy by donning a school uniform.

All New Shooting Stars, a one-off special, was an object lesson in never going back. Vic and Bob seemed like their own fathers. The only recognisable celebrity was Jack Dee, who, with a blue tit balanced on his head, stood nose to nose with an opera singer giving Nessun Dorma plenty of welly. Any trembling or precipitation of the tit would indicate failure and cost him a beautiful pillowcase. To watch Dee crack into a smile was joy enough for one night.

The third series goes out on a high with a Christmas episode that verges on the heart-warming. Yes, this is Lead Balloon we're talking about, but for once, Rick Spleen's badwill to all men can't quite spoil things. In fact, while out on his scooter, he finds it in himself to do a genuine good turn at one point, and if that isn't a Christmas miracle, I don't know what is. Mind you, there's plenty of the bah-humbug to begin with, as Rick's role as a panto pirate leads to a mishap with a bag of sweets, while the tree he's bought sheds its needles freely on the living-room floor. Somehow, it's the little hardships that get blown out of proportion by Lead Balloon, and while the show always teeters on the edge of the inconsequential, tonight there are some rich comedy moments. It will come as no surprise that these involve home help Magda, who's in mourning for her country's president, and Michael, who's in love.

One of the many pleasures of Lead Balloon is the strength and diversity of the ensemble cast. Although the series revolves around the childish egotism of Rick (Jack Dee), everyone else - including the children - behave like grown-ups dealing with a fractious child. His wife reasons with Rick. His writing partner mocks him. Magda suffers him. His daughter and her boyfriend exploit or ignore him. Rick's behaviour, on its own, would be ridiculous and self-defeating. Surrounded by the eccentric sanity of a superb supporting cast, it is funny and vulnerable and endearing.

More from the low-key sitcom that has me ignoring the jokes and simply trying to work out which character I hate the most. It's a tough call (even Rick's wife is annoyingly smug), but it has to be the odious co-writer Marty, who I get the feeling we're actually meant to side with.