Liza Tarbuck

Preview: Upstart Crow

Never mind Leicester winning the league, what odds would you have got on Ben Elton being funny again? But hold the front page: Elton has got his mojo back. Well, everything is relative. After his appalling The Wright Way it looked like the acclaimed comic might never make us laugh again. But he has done it with Upstart Crow, which, let's not mince words, is Blackadder Does The Bard.

Is Upstart Crow as good as Blackadder?

Ben Elton - the writer of both shows, who has been pilloried for a lot of his recent work including the fairly dire The Wright Way - is clearly returning to his strengths. And I would say this does indeed deserve comparisons with Blackadder, the brilliant comedy he co-wrote with Richard Curtis, because it is very good.

David Mitchell and Liza Tarbuck interview

Upstart Crow stars David Mitchell as a nerdy William Shakespeare, and Liza Tarbuck as his wife Anne. They chatted to us about 'bard behaviour' and more...

A double bill to launch the new series of this splendidly daft sketch comedy from The League Of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson. Rebecca Front returns as the ever-patient psychologist and a dazzling cast of comedy performers - including Katy Brand, Morgana Robinson, Sam Spiro, Sharon Horgan, Doon Mackichan and Liza Tarbuck - play fantastically loopy women from history. Tonight Anna Nicole Smith comes to talk about her love life, and Anne Boleyn hopes for a happy resolution in her couples therapy.

One of tonight's quite interesting facts is that all the guest celebs in Stephen Fry's quizzing kaleidoscope are female, with Radio 4 presenter Susan Calman, TV perennial Liza Tarbuck and actor/comedian/antiques buff Sandi Toksvig ready to subject themselves to a surreal grilling. Will regular Alan Davies be able to keep his end up as the only male on the receiving end of tonight's posers? Of course he will, with bells on.

Radio Times review

The QI arena is buzzing tonight. Sometimes you get the feeling everyone on the panel is simply enjoying themselves and the show's lovely meandering jollity quickly becomes infectious. On the panel we have Radio 4 regular Susan Calman, Sandi Toksvig and Liza Tarbuck, plus an in-form Alan Davies, who breaks into even more of those whimsical little mimes he likes doing than usual - a randy spider, a kayak being surprised by a trawler, and so on.

But there's fascination aplenty too as we learn about the tall tales of cinnamon salesmen, ultra-hot chillies and female weightlifters. Plus the urgent and surreal question: why would German soldiers have abnormally large breasts?

I have now watched three episodes of It's Kevin and I'm still not sure if it's funny. Kevin Eldon's sketch show is certainly odd, with moments of brilliance, but the set-ups are invariably more inspired than the pay-offs, and Eldon's studied air of deadpan detachment walks a fine line between quirky and irritating.

But half an hour in the company of Eldon's imagination is never wasted, plus he's been shrewd enough to surround himself with an impressive array of comic performers, including Julia Davis, Liza Tarbuck and Adam Buxton.

Was there ever a time when Ken Dodd wasn't waving his tickling stick while firing off more gags than most of us ever learn in a lifetime? Now 85, the indefatigable jester of Knotty Ash is still knocking 'em in the aisles up and down the country with his famously overlong shows.

In How Tickled I've Been, Liza Tarbuck paid tribute to the comic with the help of Roy Hudd, the bishop of Liverpool, The Guardian's Michael Billington - a steadfast Doddy-holic - and her dad Jimmy, who does a very good impression of his fellow Liverpudlian.

The tax evasion court case that sullied his reputation briefly in the late 1980s - he was eventually acquitted - was mentioned only in terms of Dodd's ability to bounce back from adversity. The humiliating three-week trial was followed by a record-breaking 40-week engagement at the London Palladium, during which he introduced himself as "Kenneth Arthur Dodd, comedian, photographic playboy and failed accountant".

The one-time travelling salesman said he had the most wonderful job: "I only get to see people when they're happy."

Liza Tarbuck tries to get a straight word out of the unique talent that is Ken Dodd. After nearly 60 years in the business, his typically British brand of whimsy always raises a smile and a host of contemporaries line up here to pay tribute.

How in-depth it gets remains to be seen, but if anyone can pin the mile-a-minute gagster down, it's the ever-professional Liza.

Liza Tarbuck presents a look back at Doddy's 60 years in showbiz revolving around a new interview with him, including salutes from Liza's Dad, Jimmy, plus James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, drama critic Michael Billington and Roy Hudd. I wish producer Graham Pass had asked me. When I ran my late mother's stall in St John's Market, Liverpool in the Sixties, Doddy (who was on at the Empire) came in for a Christmas drink with us market ladies on half-day closing (Wednesday). Tickled? For everyone, from Ada Stubbs (who sold chickens) to Pauline Griffiths (who sold flowers) it was as good as entertaining royalty. I remember him playing Malvolio (and well, too) in Twelfth Night at the Liverpool Playhouse. I will never forget seeing him at the London Palladium, laughing so much my children told me I had mascara streaks down to my chin.