James Corden

Charity gigs come in all shapes and sizes, from a bunch of stand-ups passing the hat round in a room above a pub to this, a Channel 4-backed night to benefit Great Ormond Street which features one of the most celeb-heavy lineups you're likely to see anywhere this year. As Peep Show is unequivocally the network's biggest comedy hit in recent years, it's all the more fitting to have David Mitchell as one of the main attractions, doing a relatively rare live turn. Among those joining him at the O2 are Channel 4 regulars like Sean Lock, Jack Whitehall and the Fonejacker, but the net's also been spread wide enough to include the likes of Jonathan Ross and Gavin & Stacey stars Ruth Jones and James Corden. And given the charity involved, you can't rule out a last-minute cameo from Sir Alan Sugar. If you can't get a ticket, you'll be able to see the whole thing on TV next month.

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Imagine A Question Of Sport without the sports questions, combined with They Think It's All Over without the comedy and what you get is Sky 1's A League of Their Own.

Apparently the programme is available in high definition, although what it looks like really is the least of its problems. The show desperately struggles to fill its allotted hour, despite the best efforts of chairman James Corden and team captains Jamie Redknapp and Andrew Flintoff. They really do work hard for their money, with Flintoff proving surprisingly witty and charming.

But the format doesn't do anybody any favours, particularly the overworked scriptwriters who are expected to pour comedy into the yawning chasms apparent in the dull, unimaginative and painfully protracted format. Working out which of three sporting lookalikes enjoyed the most success took the teams all of 15 minutes.

There were some very fine gags but nowhere near enough of them. That the whole enterprise was shot through with tedious blokeyness, accompanied by the inevitable whiff of homophobia - the default setting for the terminally unfunny - just made it all the more agonising.

I approached A League of Their Own, a new sports quiz hosted by James Corden, much as Superman would approach a toilet hewn from Kryptonite. I have next to no interest in sport, Corden is an inescapable irritant and the concept of athletes jousting for giggles is dismal enough on A Question of Sport, let alone a wacky Sky 1 panel show. Sure enough, this is an awful, lacklustre, derivative programme full of blokey banter, laboured whimsy, and Corden, with his one joke ("I'm fat!"), acting, as ever, like a noisy class clown desperately straining for attention. Or, if you prefer, an over-excited sea lion clapping for his supper. He won't mind. He knows he's fat and how funny that is.

A new comedy quiz, hosted by James Corden, which draws on sports fans' love of lists. Team captains are England cricket monster Andrew Flintoff and Sky football pundit Jamie Redknapp, here to try to shake off the national embarrassment of those holiday advertisements. Regular panellists are comedian John Bishop and Sky Sports News presenter Georgie Thompson. Show one - an hour-long special with guests David Haye and Neil Morrissey was still in the edit suite as we went to press.

A strange sensation nagged at tvBite as, tears of bitter rage trickling down its cheeks, it sat down to the opening stanzas of the symphony of smug that is Sky's take on They Think It's All Over. Dear old Andrew Flintoff was there, making jokes about his drink issues. Top Top Jamie was there, being chummy. And there was the host, popular Gavin And Stacey actor James Corden. Several minutes passed, with tvBite eyeing the kitchen knives lasciviously and wondering what was amiss.

And then it hit! Fully four minutes had gone by without Corden making an amusing self-deprecating reference to his weight! Alarmed, tvBite began calling the Trading Standards Office, but they were out. Offcom were no more use. Just as tvBite was considering a cab to Isleworth or wherever to plead at the door of the TV studio for one, just one, "I am fat" quip, normal service was resumed. Corden then done five jokes about his own physical appearance in the next seven minutes, and all was right with the world once more. Phew! Banter!

Video Clip: Greatest Song from a Rubbish Artist?

Here's a bit of web-exclusive fun for you: a clip filmed during the recording of Episode One. Who deserves the Lucas for Greatest Song from a Musical Artist Who is Otherwise Rubbish? Graham Linehan, James Corden and Katy Brand must decide...