Jo Brand

Radio 4 launched us on Wednesday night into the inexplicably late-scheduled Nurse (11.15pm!), co-written and starring Paul Whitehouse. Johnny Depp once described Whitehouse, without seeming irony, as "the greatest actor of all time", and it's not wholly impossible to understand the compliment.

This was dark and enthralling comedy. It will attract faint criticism - what does Whitehouse, with his comfy Aviva ads, know of mental illness? - but it turns out that Whitehouse, without being quite as close to it as Jo Brand, had, during his Fast Show years, done a little clever research into mental illness. This show, also featuring Esther Coles as a community psychiatric nurse, is, essentially, all about bewilderment: the bewilderment of those on fringes who simply can't understand the way the rest of us think, nor why we should insist on doing so. It's deeply subtle, and the subject matter doesn't lend itself to LOL-itude, but it was a quiet (if inexcusably late-night) delight, and executed with only about four squillion times the sensitivity of Ricky Gervais's Derek.

The week in comedy - feat. Dave Gorman, Jo Brand...

Looking ahead to the week's chuckle forecast, including strong showings from Clapham Comedy Club and Happy Mondays in New Cross ...

Jo Brand honoured for nursing work

Jo Brand has been awarded an honorary doctorate from a university in Kent.

O'Dowd's Family Tree & Merhcant's Hello Ladies axed

The two British comedies will not be renewed by the American cable broadcaster - but there is hope for the US remake of Jo Brand comedy Getting On.

Quizmaster Stephen Fry, resplendent in a deep red, Noël Coward-ish dressing gown, hosts a sparkly QI Christmas special with guests, Mrs Brown's alter ego Brendan O'Carroll, Phill Jupitus, Jo Brand and Alan Davies. It's the Feast of Stephen, of course, and Fry introduces a young lady who's invented what she describes as an "unknitting machine" which is operated behind the scenes in the studio by her brother, much to everyone's ribald delight.

Fry, a man who loves gadgets, is thrilled as the machine unravels Alan Davies's festive scarf. Meanwhile, the guests wonder what presents we can expect from the Queen, and why Father Christmas is no longer on a Rich List.

A festive edition of Matt Lucas's comedy awards ceremony, where comedians nominate awards to be handed out in daft categories. Tonight's nominators are Jo Brand, Alan Davies and Rhod Gilbert, who will determining the awards before passing over judging duties to a celebrity panel. A loose term, perhaps, as the panel comprises perky dancer Bonnie Langford, bum-chinned funnyman Ted Robbins, 80s ventriloquist Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog, chef Jean-Christophe Novelli and former footballer David Ginola.

Jo Brand: 'I look like Julian Clary on steroids'

Making her panto debut as the genie in Aladdin is not that far removed from the comedy Jo Brand usually does: it's all about getting laughs.

Chat shows can sometimes throw up guest lists that read like a particularly demented dinner party and that's certainly the case with Mr Norton tonight as Hollywood hell-raiser Colin Farrell, Top Gear motormouth Jeremy Clarkson, X Factor matriarch Sharon Osbourne and comedian Jo Brand find themselves parked next to each other on the sofa. At least we get a rare chance to sample the live delights of chart-topping Arcade Fire on terrestrial TV.

While one doesn't like to laugh at other people's misfortunes, that was pretty much encouraged during I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down, in which comedian and musician Rich Morton chatted to a variety of stand-ups about those nightmares gigs that remain impossible to forget.

While this was a thoroughly entertaining half-hour, Morton rarely gave any of his interviewees a namecheck, which became frustrating for the listener. At the top of the show, we were told he was going to be talking to Jo Brand, Tim Clark, Jack Dee, Milton Jones, Lucy Porter and Ian Stone. True, it was easy to know when Dee, Brand and Porter were contributing, but the rest of the time it was a bit of a guessing game.

However, aside from this hiccup was a stream of amusing anecdotes about disastrous corporate gigs - prompting one comedian to try to escape by hiding in a dumb waiter - horrible hecklers and that one person in the audience who doesn't laugh.

Dee was in particularly good form, describing how if a Comedy Store gig went wrong in the early days of his career, he would tackle the challenge of walking through the audience in order to leave the venue by wearing his motorcycle helmet, as if he had just delivered a pizza.