John Bishop (I)

John Bishop: How counselling saved our marriage

John Bishop won back his wife after learning to express his feelings during stand-up shows.

Micky Flanagan proves that stand-ups come in all shapes

Flanagan, like John Bishop, has shown that not all comics are young males in skinny jeans.

John Bishop: My wife and my comedy life

John Bishop talks about how his failing marriage inspired his stand-up career and how his wife eventually found him funny again.

The last laugh: another club to close

Sarah Millican, Michael McIntyre and John Bishop have all played the Laugh Inn in the past three years - but it wasn't enough.

That's Jessie J under the swirl of shaving foam, and the reason she's posing like the queen of the Oompa Loompas is that she'll be shaving her hair off as part of tonight's culmination to Red Nose Day. Yes, it's time for the stunts and dares and unlikely comedy mash-ups to reach their bubbling live climax.

As ever, we can expect unmissable moments delivered by an almost obscenely starry line-up. Presenters include Michael McIntyre, Rob Brydon, John Bishop, Davina McCall, Jonathan Ross and (careful, now...) Russell Brand. Ricky Gervais will bring David Brent out of retirement. There are mini-eps of Call the Midwife and Fresh Meat, a cook-off between Jack Whitehall and Micky Flanagan, and of course a new novelty pop promo from Peter Kay.

The trick for viewers is to flash the cash early. Text the donation line or get out the credit card at an early stage, then relax as the night rolls by. You'll never make it through all those heartbreaking appeal films if you don't know your money's on its way.

John Bishop discovered lad stole his routine

TV comic John Bishop has told how a cheeky lad stole his routine for a charity gig - and he thought he was "pretty amusing".

John Bishop interview

John Bishop's ambition is to recreate the Seventies hit The Comedians, from Granada TV.

John Bishop's Only Joking was Sky1's take on ITV's legendary stand-up show The Comedians. Only this time, as well as stand-ups it had celebrities and civilians telling jokes while John Bishop acted as compere.

More often than not the civilians delivered the best gags, especially the ten-year-old schoolboys. But nobody could compete with Mock The Week's star man Stewart Francis. Here's his best effort: 'The thing I don't like about my children is that when things go wrong they have a tendency to blame other people... They get that from their mum.'

John Bishop's new vehicle is a resolutely family-friendly throwback to the days of The Comedians, when TV standup was a relentless stream of "fella-walked-into-a-bar" jokes that steadfastly avoided any reference to life as actually lived. A cast of thousands are involved, including celebrities from Ricky Hatton and Robbie Williams to ordinary folk, telling creaky jokes that at least crease them up. All this is peppered with occasional pellets of non-abrasive observational humour from smirk-merchants such as Jason Manford.

John Bishop: 'Everyone loves a bad joke'

Easy-going Scouse stand-up John Bishop is rarely aware from TV screens these days. His laid-back, cheeky humour has made him a must-have booking for TV producers and he's done it all while still selling out arenas across the UK.