Jack Whitehall

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.

Radio Times review

Mildly plummy, rapier-witted Jack Whitehall spends a week in a different British city, staying with a host family of strangers, and documenting his experiences. Along the way he visits Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, Glasgow, Bristol and Essex, but the result is less a travelogue and more a vehicle for his polished TV persona (although his confidence was jarred when he met his host family in Glasgow and realised he'd snogged the daughter a few years previously while on a beach holiday).

At the end of each week, he presents what is essentially a madcap variety show at a local venue. He performs stand-up, which both celebrates and gently ribs each location, and reveals some of the candid-camera stunts he has carried out - in one city he convinced passers-by he was a doctor who had delivered a human baby from a pregnant cow!

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The first episode of Little Crackers offered an object lesson in sharp storytelling. My First Brassiere was a pithy love letter to Barbara Windsor's bosom that offered the surreal sight of the older Babs being confronted with her own burgeoning teenage breasts - she played a shop assistant measuring up her younger self.

Weird, huh? Perky and engaging, with Samantha White striking as the young Babs and Sally Hawkins and Neil Jackson a joy as her parents, this short film played like a trailer for a feature-length story. Someone really should make it.

Next up was Jack Whitehall's bash at his Little Cracker, as Archie Lyndhurst starred as a 10-year-old version of the camp comedian, with Inbetweeners mum Belinda Stewart-Wilson in another 'MILF' role and Whitehall himself as a chap called Robin Hood.

Like Babs' offering, this was another enjoyable little comedy and although Whitehall's idea and execution were spot-on, it's obvious that it's Sky 1's Little Crackers concept that is to thank for the consistent high standard of these yuletide treats.

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With Fridays being the unofficial stand-up night of the week (­seriously, check out tonight's telly - so much comedy there's not even room to swing a cat-sized reality show around), the award ceremony dedicated to all things funny sits among welcoming surroundings.

Jonathan Ross is on hosting duties so, as the show is live, we hope somebody at Channel 4 HQ has their quickest finger poised over the "bleep" button.

Those hoping to make winners' speeches include Miranda Hart, who deservedly won best new TV comedy and best comedy actress last year.

She's up for a ­whopping four awards this time, including the people's choice gong, which is voted for by us.

But the category's a toughie this year, with the marvellous Jo Brand and Sarah Millican also hoping to steal the honours. In our eyes, they all deserve to win.

The male awards aren't any easier to predict, with David Mitchell, Graham Norton and Jack Whitehall fighting to be named the nation's favourite male ­comedian (although, given the year he's had, John Bishop should have been up).

While all the names we've mentioned deserve their nominations, there are some categories where you get the impression one or two shows are just in there to make up the numbers.

But as this is comedy night and we're in such a jolly mood, we won't be so cruel as to name them.