Jo Brand

Jo Brand says women are too soft for comedy

Jo Brand has claimed comedy is largely a man's world because women are too soft.

Leading up to the British Comedy Awards, Comic's Choice invited five celebrated comedians - Alan Davies, Sean Lock, Jo Brand, Jessica Hynes, Lee Mack - to choose a shortlist and winner from among their own personal past favourites. Bill Bailey played affable host, something he does effortlessly.

Forgetting for one moment the universally acknowledged truth that no comic truly enjoys any laughter they haven't themselves produced, the show's premise was flimsy in the extreme. Not to mention confusing - Alan Davies nominated Chris Morris as Best Breakthrough Act for work done in 1994.

Davies also took part in a film recreation of an unsuccessful audition he once attended, as gratuitous a piece of padding as I have seen in a long time. This lack of coherence was reflected in the meaningless studio set design which threw together leather armchairs, old boilers, stuffed elk heads and bicycles combined to create the effect of a gentleman's club located in a garage.

Basically Comic's Choice was yet another excuse to disinter old archive clips instead of producing fresh comedy. Although, having said that, the archive clips were rather excellent, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

When actors talk warmly about other actors who inspired them, the results are embarrassing, as a rule. But the same doesn't apply to comedians, for some reason: get them talking about other comics and the results can be tart, revealing and funny. That's the idea here as part of the extra hoo-ha that Channel 4 is drumming up around next week's British Comedy Awards. The idea is that Bill Bailey chats to a different comedian each night about his or her comedy heroes. What are their all-time favourite shows and which comedian would they give their own personal award to? Bailey begins with selections from Alan Davies - always smarter than he pretends to be - and later in the week there's hero worship from Lee Mack, Jo Brand, Jessica Hynes and Sean Lock.

As the British Comedy Awards gets a revamp and moves to Channel 4 from ITV, Bill presents five companion shows in the week running up to the big event, on Saturday. In each he interviews a top British comedian about their comic likes and dislikes. First it's Alan Davies, with Lee Mack, Jo Brand, Jessica Hynes and Sean Lock to follow on consecutive nights.

One of digital channel Dave's few original commissions, Carpool is a novelty chat-show devised and hosted by Robert Llewellyn, in which he ferries celebrity guests inside a car fixed with cameras.

This simple premise allows Llewellyn and his passengers to trade banter which, while rarely hilarious, provides a pleasant way to spend half an hour

His first guest was likable Irish comedian Jason Byrne, followed by a natter with Jo Brand - clearly one of showbiz's nicest stars - in which she revealed that her superb NHS comedy Getting On was filmed in an abandoned hospital in the dead of winter with no heating facilities.

A slight but genial slice of compact-concept television.

For its makers, Carpool certainly has budgetary virtues. Instead of going to the expense of hiring a studio and building a set, they simply send out Robert Llewellyn in his Toyota Prius to pick up celebrities, whom he is then filmed interviewing in his car. Cheap as chips. This week, it's the turn of Jason Byrne, en route from the airport, who waxes vaguely amusing about conspiracy theories. Jo Brand is the next passenger, getting to retell the story of how she once flunked an audition to play herself.

The second series of the sitcom set in an NHS geriatric ward opened up even darker, richer seams of black comedy than the first. Written by and starring Jo Brand (world-weary Nurse Kim Wilde), Vicki Pepperdine (tactless Dr Pippa Moore) and Joanna Scanlan (Sister Den Flixter), it was directed by The Thick of It's Peter Capaldi - and the influence of the political comedy was evident in every frame. The posturings of hierarchy and bureaucratic idiocy were skewered relentlessly, scatological humour was allied to brutal deadpan, and the timing was perfect. Getting On also hid a beating heart at its centre that gave it surprising emotional power.

Portrait of the artist: Jo Brand, comedian

'I played a fairy in a Christmas show called Only Fools and Turkeys. It was set in a cafe - and builders took the mickey'.

Affable comedian Rob Brydon (The Trip, Gavin & Stacey) asks cranky colleagues Jo Brand and Jack Dee to spread festive cheer on this light-hearted entertainment show. The two guests play up to their bah-humbug personas, with Brand suggesting an unusual way to get rid of unwanted relatives. Sozzled children's entertainer Jeremy Lion (Justin Edwards) offers a hilarious, wine-fuelled take on The Twelve Days of Christmas. And gothic rocker Alice Cooper shares the sofa with charismatic baritone Bryn Terfel.