Josie Long

The 100 club - Josie Long's self-improvement odyssey

Artists who signed up for comedian Josie Long's self-improvement odyssey reveal fruits of their 100 days labour/

In round two, more jokers try to outwit each other: zany stand-up Josie Long, comic writer Robert Popper and - the most impudent by far - actor David Schneider. Success will be rewarded with a "Lucas" - the newest, most arbitrary award around, named after jovial host Matt Lucas. Tonight he's after nominations for the most incomprehensible British accent, least practical pet and best war. That's if his guests can get a gag in edgeways: Lucas can't help jumping in with rib-tickling anecdotes, while selecting winners even more random than his categories. Not that we're complaining; this knocks the socks off the average, smug awards do.

After the high of last week's hilarious opener, I thought this episode was very flat overall. None of Sean Lock's flights-of-fancy left the ground, Jason Manford seemed to struggle for material, and the choice of guests wasn't very good. I'm not a fan of young standup Jack Whitehall, and while I find Josie Long strangely beguiling (it's her grinning, just-rolled-out-of-bed cuteness), she wasn't very funny here.

Peter Jones from Dragons' Den was subdued to begin with, but he warmed up in the second part - and in doing so gave comedy ammo to the others about his millionaire lifestyle anecdotes. Fay Ripley wasn't a total loss because she got involved, but this episode was definitely slack and its content has already melted from my memory. You know it's a weak episode when a clip from the US version of Wife Swap (an irritating fat kid being denied junk food by his "swapped" mom) proved to be the highlight.

Tonight's finale sees five solid actresses, including Josie Long from Skins, launch a sketch show in the same female-friendly vein as Smack the Pony. It's most successful when focusing on women's obsessions - two office girls torture another by forcing her to eat carbs, and female reporters grilling a kidnap victim are only interested in how much weight she lost. On balance, very promising.

The all-female ensemble sketch show is an easy and predictable target for sexist comedy-haters, but Girl Friday should provide the opposing camp with plenty of ammunition. There's a hint of Chris Morris's Jam in the way it twists the usual fodder for less sophisticated sketches, such as the crazy drunk girl in a pub, and gives them a surreal or clever denouement. Josie Long heads up the cast, and it all works so nicely that it deserves to get a full run.

How to put the buzz back in Buzzcocks

There's an obvious way to fix BBC's floundering pop quiz, Never Mind the Buzzcocks. And her name is Josie Long.