John Bishop (I)

It's one of the big nights of the year and Graham Norton has a sensational line-up to celebrate. In fact, it has the potential to be such a wild and funny show maybe you should cancel your plans to go out to that warm-wine-and-nibbles party you weren't particularly looking forward to and just stay in instead.

So how about this lot to make your New Year's Eve go with a proper swing: Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Billy Crystal, John Bishop and The Great British Bake Off's Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, with music from Pink. Incredible, isn't it? What will the sainted Mary make of it all? Will Cruise, in town to promote his new film Jack Reacher, be acquainted with soggy bottoms? Can Jackman, starring in the movie version of Les Misérables, make rough-puff pastry? We need to know.

John Bishop wrote and stars in this comedy drama, inspired by his own experiences on the pantomime circuit. He plays Lewis Loud, a Morecambe FM DJ making his stage debut as Jack the Lad in a run of Dick Whittington in Lancaster.

The production is in chaos because Lewis is romantically involved with Tamsin, a soap actress who's playing principal boy Dick (Mrs Biggs' and Gavin & Stacey's Sheridan Smith). Not only that, but old ham Johnny Darby (Michael Cochrane) is a very reluctant pantomime Dame and The One and Only 90s chart star Chesney Hawkes is a walking disaster.

Right now, John Bishop feels like the most inescapable presence on British TV. But that doesn't mean he hasn't paid his dues - this comedy drama, co-written with Jonathan Harvey probably represents the last leg of J-Bish's journey from the showbiz margins to centre stage. Fittingly, it's inspired by his own adventures on the pantomime circuit - here, he plays Lewis Loud, a Morecambe FM DJ making his debut in a run of Dick Whittington. Look out for supporting turns from the equally hardworking Sheridan Smith and the slightly less prolific Chesney Hawkes, whose career has followed an almost geometrically opposite trajectory to that of Bishop. No preview material was available as we went to press, but we'd confidently stick our money on a cheerful, rough-around-the-edges but essentially good natured romp which might well slip down easily in Christmas week.

John Bishop and Sheridan Smith interview

John Bishop and Sheridan Smith talk about serving up perfect Christmas fare from the wings of Dick Whittington.

No relation to the Simon Nye-scripted ITV offerings from the turn of the millennium, this John Bishop-devised comedy drama peeks behind the scenes of a provincial panto. Radio jock Lewis Loud (Bishop) is preparing for his stage debut while wooing co-starring soap actor Tamsin (Sheridan Smith), while ex-wife Gina has plans to disrupt any backstage harmony. Whatever you may think of Bishop, a cast including Samantha Spiro and (yes!) Chesney Hawkes suggests this may be a decent accompaniment to the annual search for that elusive final Quality Street fudge.

Sheridan Smith & John Bishop interview

Comic John Bishop teams up with actress Sheridan Smith for the festive comedy-drama Panto!

This is a new series covering everything that's been going on in 2012 starring John Bishop. Well, I say new. This series appears to be John Bishop's Britain remarketed.

Like its predecessor, Bishop covers a range of different topics using both stand-up and sketches. However, this time around the sketches are all performed by the sketch trope Pappy's, and there are no pre-filmed segments with celebrities or members of the public.

I must say that this worked rather well for most of the time. I especially liked the opening sketch about the Greek economy, which featured two Greek men trying to mend their broken plates to save money. However, I was annoyed by the pasty tax sketch which featured another lazy John Prescott gag. You'd think we've moved on from such a basic gag, or at least changed that target to someone more current (no doubt that would be Eric Pickles)...

However, there's one problem I do have with this programme and all programmes of this type, really. Namely it doesn't cover all of the year. Bishop's show aired in November, which is just ridiculous. I don't want to sound like someone from the Daily Mail, but these review programmes just seem to keep coming around earlier every year. It's just not right...

Gigglebox weekly #66: Peep Show, John Bishop's Big Year

This week Ian Wolf witnesses a microwave being destroyed and a programme that's a month too early.

It's a mark of the rapidity of John Bishop's comedy ascent, and the place he's hollowed out in the national consciousness, that he's been given his own review-of-the-year show.

This is a rare honour, but we are in good hands. Bishop is a sharp and clever observer of the British character (see John Bishop's Britain) and an astute commentator on our little foibles, from our obsession with naan breads the size of duvets to our fear of arm-breaking swans.

In John Bishop's Big Year, the comedian performs two stand-up sets (the second will be shown next Friday) in front of a studio audience. Both focus on the events of the past year, so there's plenty of material. The Jubilee, the Olympics and Paralympics, the terrible washout summer, even the success of Fifty Shades of Grey - all are fair game.

Both shows will be peppered with news footage and silly sketches.

Light entertainer de nos jours John Bishop presents the first of two shows in which he combines stand-up, sketches and clips, to take what is inevitably described as 'a light-hearted look back' at the last 12 months of British life. There's plenty for JB to talk about; we suspect we'll hear rather more about the Jubilee and the Olympics than we will about the recession and the Leveson Enquiry, but then Bishop's nothing if not a populist. Nothing wrong with that, but don't expect anything too searching from the amiable Scouser.