Jason Manford

Half an hour in the company of John Bishop would be reason enough to tune in, but he's plundered his address book and persuaded his celebrity pals to dust off their favourite one-liners.

Robbie Williams, John Prescott, Ricky Hatton, Freddie Flintoff and Warwick Davis all do their best to make us giggle, along with fellow stand-ups Jason Manford, Jason Byrne, Andi Osho and Mick Miller.

Members of the public are also given the chance to exercise their funny bone, including an impish schoolboy with a joke about poo (naturally) and a side-splitting laugh. As you'd expect from that line-up, it's a mixed bag but squeaky clean, so there's no need to cover young ears.

John Prescott shifts his buttocks around in an armchair. 'So the doctor asks me: "What do you mean you want a flu jab in your left arm AND your right arm?". "Well, why do you think they call me 'two jabs'?".' Such is the quality of gags in this joke-based half-hour presented by John Bishop.

This 'show that always makes you laugh' goes for the funny bone by combining snippets of stand-up from the likes of Jason Manford and Ed Byrne with pre-recorded Christmas cracker-worthy contributions from D-lebrities and members of the public. The stand-up is far and away the highlight in comparison to the cast of Chingford health instructors, Wiltshire factory workers and Heather from EastEnders reeling off funnies that range from the bizarre to the hackneyed.

Entertaining enough, but could probably have done without the to-camera spots from a curiously vacant Bishop.

John Bishop's new series serves scant purpose other than for the comedian to act as compere for a series of clips of fellow stand-ups (among them Jason Manford, Jason Byrne and Mick Miller), celebrities (including Jamie Redknapp, Ricky Hatton, John Prescott and Freddie Flintoff) and members of the public, telling jokes. The series runs to 10 episodes and is entirely dependent on the quality of jokes, which on tonight's evidence aren't very good. They are, however, squeaky clean, so at least it's an option for entertaining family viewing.

Jason Manford corrals a slew of stand-up comedians into taking a wry, sideways look at the past 12 months. Recorded in front of a live studio audience a couple of weeks ago, Manford and his fellow comics draw on the best, the worst and the weirdest things that happened in 2012. Much of the material comes from the showpiece events that supposedly brought the whole country together: the Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics and the Paralympics.

If the air of positivity around those galas means they don't turn out to be the fertile comic ground the comics would hope for, there's good mileage in this year's nonstop rain, and in such unforeseen cultural phenomena as Gangnam Style by Korean internet star Psy.

Sharon Horgan's effort was the pick of Sky1's latest lot of Little Crackers but honourable mentions must go to Paul O'Grady and Jason Manford.

It was great to see O'Grady back as Lily Savage, while Manford was very brave basing his tale on his own teenage circumcision.

He even got to dress up as a big-breasted blonde nurse. So maybe all that business on Skype was for research after all.

Tonight's first frolic down celebrity lane features a first-love story in hospital. A 12-year-old Jason Manford (Ellis Hollins) attracts female attention while waiting for what he tells them is a brain op (in fact a circumcision). Manford himself plays the boy's father, surgeon and nurse, inviting comparisons with Peter Kay.

The second features the stand-up career born of a terrible one-man show about Al Pacino. Omid Djalili recalls how a tobacconist changed his life, and how he literally fell into comedy. Former EastEnder Ashley Kumar plays the 22-year-old Djalili as an aspiring actor trying to break out of overearnest-theatre-group hell. Fun and sweet-natured if sprinkled with cringe.

A 12-year-old boy finds love on the eve of his circumcision. A failing young actor changes tack after a violent confrontation with the police. Yes, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas on Sky1, as tradition-in-the-making Little Crackers approaches the end of its third run of autobiographical comedy shorts. Jason Manford opens with the aforementioned tale of love and gross (and it really is gross) physical loss, helming a charming vignette that will warm the cockles of your heart. At 9.30pm, Omid Djalili tells a comforting and true tale of failure, involving a shambolic one-man show and a formative brush with the law. Shaky directorial debuts abound, at times to the point of distraction. But an amateurish wrapping job will always come second to what's inside it.

After the success of Chris O'Dowd's Moone Boy and Kathy Burke's Walking And Talking it was hard not to expect big things from Sky1's latest lot of Little Crackers.

But I can't see any of this year's first batch making it to a full series. Joanna Lumley's much-hyped look back at her early modelling days was particularly uninspiring. But with efforts from the likes of Paul O'Grady, Sharon Horgan and Jason Manford still to come this week perhaps we shouldn't give up all hope just yet.

Jason Manford announces UK tour for 2013...

Jason Manford has announced details of a mammoth 113-night tour of the UK.

Channel 4 has acreated a band new panel game, hosted by former Doctor Who star David Tennant.

The idea of Comedy World Cup is an interesting one, as the theme of the show is comedy itself. It's a team game, with different teams each episode, consisting of one current comedy star as captain, with a younger comic and a veteran. This week, Captain Jo Brand with Dave Spikey and Shappi Khorsandi, played against Jason Manford, who lead alongside Paul Chowdhry and Nicholas Parsons.

The episode lasted an hour, which some might seem as being excessive for a panel game - but I disagree. For starters, it still isn't the longest panel show in terms of episode length, as that title goes to The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (not counting David Walliams and his 24-hour long panel show marathon for Comic Relief). You also have the ad breaks too, so the show is broken down a bit. Put it this way; an extended repeat of HIGNFY or QI is between 40-45 minutes long. Comedy World Cup is 45 minutes long, plus 15 minutes of advertising during which you can make a cup of tea. So it's nothing new. Some might say it's an improvement to have a break in the middle.

The show consisted of seven rounds, many of them reminding me of other panel shows and game shows. For example there a "What happens next?" round (see A Question of Sport), and one where children act out stand-up routines (see The Big Fat Quiz where they get kids to act out news stories).

Now, I admit that this show wasnt 'the funniest panel show I've seen. But to me, this isn't the point. For someone like me who is really into their comedy, it's like a pub quiz themed especially for me - and if you're a comedy buff then this is the show for you. But it's best watched with other like-minded people to see who really is more knowledgeable on these matters...