Jack Whitehall

Jack Whitehall: don't hate me because I'm posh

The Fresh Meat star claims that his middle-class background infuriates the critics.

The hilarious Secret Policeman's Ball is back to mark Amnesty ­International's 50th anniversary.

Recorded last Sunday at Radio City Music Hall in New York, it's the first time the gala event has been held outside the UK since John Cleese and his friends brought together musicians and ­comedians for the first show in 1976.

It might also be the first time that Coldplay and professional hecklers Statler and Waldorf, from The Muppets, have appeared on the same bill.

The all star-cast also features comics from both sides of the Atlantic, including David Walliams, Ben Stiller, Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Carr, Noel Fielding and Jack Whitehall, with music from Mumford & Sons.

The Amnesty International benefit show returns after a four-year hiatus with a transatlanic special, taking place for the first time in New York at the Radio City Music Hall. Recorded on Sunday, the show celebrates the charity's 50th anniversary with a stellar comedy line-up including Russell Brand, Ben Stiller, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Silverman, Jack Whitehall, Jon Stewart and The Muppets. There's music, too, from Mumford & Sons and Coldplay, whose frontman, Chris Martin, announces onstage: "We take pleasure in being the least funny act here."

Video: Jack Whitehall on US Secret Policeman's Ball gig

Comedian Jack Whitehall has just returned to the UK after performing at The Secret Policeman's Ball gala in New York; the first time it has been held outside the UK.

He performed alongside Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard, David Walliams, Jon Stewart and Ben Stiller for the Amnesty International benefit.

While speaking to the BBC's Charlie Stayt and Susanna Reid about the US gig he decided to investigate the BBC Breakfast programme's set.

The Muppets added to Secret Policeman's Ball line-up

A number of new acts have been added to the bill for the Secret Policeman's Ball including the Muppets, Kristen Wiig and Jack Whitehall.

Jonathan Ross's Miss Piggy interview fell flat

The Jonathan Ross Show saw the playful host being joined by Hugh Bonneville, Jack Whitehall and the Arctic Monkeys. But it was an ill-advised appearance from The Muppets that will stick in viewers' minds.

There's a particularly challenging guest tonight - the voluptuous and very shrewd Miss Piggy who is joined by her adored Kermit to promote their new film The Muppets. Miss Piggy is well known for being wanton, so Ross had better watch out or she'll be all over him like a big pink fluffy duvet.

Hugh Bonneville, star of that unstoppable costume drama juggernaut Downton Abbey, who was recently seen smiling broadly as the series was showered with Golden Globes in Hollywood, turns up to talk about his life and career. Stand-up comedian and actor Jack Whitehall completes the bill, while Arctic Monkeys provide the music.

Ever since Rod Hull and the terrifyingly blank-eyed Emu gave Michael Parkinson a mauling on his programme in 1976, chat show hosts have been understandably cagey about inviting puppets into their studios. Top marks for bravery, then, to Jonathan Ross, who welcomes Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy onto his sofa tonight. They'll be there, ostensibly, to discuss the forthcoming Muppets movie, but it'll be a small miracle if Ross manages to avoid at least a mild handbagging.

The balance of civility should be redressed by his other big-name guest of the night, Hugh Bonneville, who - in spite of having become one of Britain's best-known actors for his starring role in Downton Abbey - remains the picture of a modest English gentleman. He'll be talking, amongst other things, about the much-anticipated third series of Downton, which is set in the Twenties and is due to begin on ITV1 in September. Completing the line-up, the young comedian Jack Whitehall - whose cocksure manner and fondness for one-liners is reminiscent of a young Jonathan Ross - is given a chance to crack wise, and Sheffield-born indie rockers Arctic Monkeys provide the music.

Posh young beardy Jack Whitehall marshals the last edition of the series, an effective mix of styles with the mucky stuff turned down a tad.

It's been a memorable year for Whitehall - gigs on stateside TV, regular panel-show turns back home, his acting debut in the acclaimed campus-com Fresh Meat. And although his set tonight is textbook fare - grumpy Brits, relationship problems, Ibiza - he still hits lots of buttons.

On paper, Josh Widdicombe is similarly cautious with his material (dining out alone, computers), but scores solid laughs. Nice little pop at Argos Extra, too: "They've used the rare definition of extra to mean far far less."

Finally the edgier Shappi Khorsandi puts fresh spins on single parenthood and online dating, and shows her mastery of the unexpected punchline.

Despite the fact he's achieved panel show ubiquity over the last few years, there was until recently a nagging sense that Jack Whitehall's privileged upbringing - the Harrodian School, Nigel Havers as a godfather - rendered him too smug to offer real comic depth. But his 2011 Edinburgh shows were unexpectedly funny and poignant, and he brilliantly nailed the role of posh twerp JP in the recent Channel 4 comedy Fresh Meat. Here he returns to Hammersmith, where he sold out two dates last year, to guest-host the last in the present series of Live at the Apollo. Josh Widdicombe and Shappi Khorsandi are the other genial stand-ups on the bill.