Kristen Schaal

Having barely scratched 100,000 years of human history in January's one-off special, a full series of Jimmy Carr's celebrity quiz arrives to finish the job. As with the Big Fat annual affairs, the quality is likely dictated by the guests therein, but tonight's opening lineup suggests a strong start. David Mitchell, Bob Mortimer and Mel Giedroyc feature, while Kristen Schaal adds transatlantic talent to the historical hullabaloo.

Radio Times review

One of the biggest annual events in the international comedy calendar, the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, Canada has played host to virtually every major comedian of the last 30 years.

In the first of two exclusive compilations for Comedy Central - older viewers will remember the days when Just For Laughs found its natural home on Channel 4 - stars including Kristen Schaal, Russell Howard, Mark Watson and the great Eddie Izzard take to the stages of Montreal's grand Place des Arts and the funkier Club Soda.

For better or worse, an interesting aspect of this coverage is seeing how internationally unknown British comedians fare in front of a foreign audience. Izzard is an established star, but will the lightweight whimsy of Howard and Watson survive the transatlantic crossing?

One of the few festive programmes where the people on screen are normally drunker than the viewers. Jimmy Carr again presides over a panel game that usually attracts a good deal of correspondence from people who like to be offended at Christmas.

The passing of legislation earlier this year forcing Jack Whitehall to be included in all comedy programmes on all channels was controversial, but - perhaps due to some sort of hangover from his competitive days as a public schoolboy - he's well suited to the quiz format.

Whitehall and fellow bellower Jonathan Ross have gentler comic minds to offset them, answering questions about the past 12 months of news: Kristen Schaal is this year's woman, and there's also Richard Ayoade, who's effortlessly defused this gnarly bearpit in past Big Fat Quizzes. Plus, Noel Fielding and Dara O'Briain.

Edinburgh comics after they come off stage: in pictures

From Kristen Schaal to Russell Kane, Stewart Lee to David O'Doherty, see comics caught when their defences are down - just moments after they come off stage, photographed at last year's Edinburgh festival by Nick Collett. An exhibition of these photographs, made possible by EdinburghisFunny, is on now at the Underbelly bar and cafe.

Interview: Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler (Link expired)

You could cut the sexual tension between Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler with a knife, finds Jay Richardson. But these comedy partners are only playing it for laughs.

Written by and starring Kristen Schaal from Flight of the Conchords, this pilot did not try to be too clever, just surreal. Penelope has 3,769 hours to save the world by killing Thomas Stone MP (Julian 'Mighty Boosh' Barrett), and stopping his fiendish plot to start a war between humans and animals. With crackerjack repartee ("Is she dead?" "Not technically." "Figuratively?" "No, but Sam says she is to him") and a delightfully silly sensibility, this is a show with legs.

Kristen Schaal stars as Penelope, Princess Of Pets, who can talk to the animals, grunt and squeak and squawk to the animals. This Comedy Lab pilot started as internet sketches and is proudly low-budget - the heroine's pals are deliberately ropey puppets and the jokes are cheap, too.

It should be terrible, but thanks to Schaal's wide-eyed charm and some delightful silliness, I laughed much more than it deserved.

Fake pigeons dangling from wires, an alcoholic bird and a woman who can talk to animals. These are the surreal ingredients of the return of C4's Comedy Lab pilots tonight. Coincidentally, there's also a talking dog you could describe as a comedy lab - as in Labrador.

If you're a fan of BBC4's Flight Of The Conchords you'll recognise US comedian Kristen Schaal, who stars as Penelope and wrote this with her pal and co-star Kurt Braunohler.

The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barratt plays an MP who Penelope has just 3,762 days to assassinate. It's funny, charming and daffy but will it make a series?

These one-off Comedy Labs, running throughout this week, have inevitably had their high and low points. But there's a healthy pedigree behind the first of tonight's offerings, Penelope Princess of Pets, about a woman who can talk to animals. It stars Kristen Schaal from Flight Of The Conchords, and is produced by Avalon, makers of Harry Hill's TV Burp.