Matt Lucas

Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain was short on laughs

Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain wasn't actually very funny, considering the veteran entertainer was cavorting with the likes of Stephen Merchant, Matt Lucas and Miranda Hart.

If you have never seen Monty Python's parrot sketch, or are unfamiliar with Eric Morecambe's demolition of "Andrew Preview" ("I am playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order"), then this is for you. Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain is a handy primer for anyone who needs to work on their history of British comedy. For everyone else, it's an easy-going, if sometimes uncomfortably loose, hour of very familiar comedians talking about comedy. As Corbett is beloved of the new wave of Brit-coms - he had cameos in Extras, where he snorted cocaine from a toilet seat, and Little Britain, where he was confronted by the grotesque Bubbles DeVere - his pals are modish. So he has an odd little interlude with Miranda Hart, whom he accompanies to the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, spiritual home of Hart's beloved Morecambe and Wise. Then Corbett has lunch with Stephen Merchant, a picnic on a punt with David Mitchell and afternoon tea with John Cleese. And with Matt Lucas he tries to be Vicky Pollard, and is terrible.

Ronnie Corbett - the pint-sized national treasure, retired comedian and arguably the finest anecdotalist of the last century - is now 80 years old and as sharp as he ever was. Disregarding a slight limp, he also doesn't appear to have aged much in the last 20 years - proof that laughter is indeed the best medicine. Tonight, feeling that it's time for "a new adventure", he embarks on the first leg of a two-part tour through the history of British comedy.

It's basically a victory lap, in which Corbett meets up with a variety of comedy luminaries - from John Cleese to Stephen Merchant to Miranda Hart - and chortles about the good old days. In the hands of a less charming figure this could easily have been a piece of self-indulgent schedule filler, but Corbett has a wonderfully light touch and the programme skips along. The first leg is dedicated to double acts, touching upon Morecambe and Wise, Mitchell and Webb, Matt Lucas and David Walliams and, needless to say, The Two Ronnies. Jokes, anecdotes and clips from the archives abound - look out for the story of how Corbett and Barker made the TV big-time, thanks largely to a power outage and some clever ad-libbing.

Walliams looks more like Lucas in Doctor Who

David Walliams looks a Little Brit like his comedy partner Matt Lucas - as he plays a bald alien in Doctor Who.

The Rob Brydon Show is in the chat show B-team

The Rob Brydon Show was a beige piece of television that this week featured Matt Lucas, a ventriloquist and indie-borers The Script.

A few surprises: the petite lady with a tattoo in the audience front row is not, as host Rob Brydon guesses, a beautician. Meanwhile, according to occasional Hollywood-botherer Matt Lucas, Tom Cruise is even shorter than we think. But how short? "One foot." U2 suppport act the Script and ventriloquist/monkey-wrangler Nina Conti complete the guestlist for this welcome second series. It doesn't get any cuddlier.

When a young woman comes out on to Brydon's stage tonight to perform a ventriloquist's act with a monkey puppet, your heart might cringe just like it does during the really eggy bits of Britain's Got Talent.

But don't, whatever you do, choose this particular moment to go and put the kettle on.

Nina Conti provides the biggest laughs and the best surprise in the return of Brydon's chummy chat show. Considering that his other guest is Matt Lucas, that's an achievement Nina should be very proud of.

And yes, since you're wondering, she is Tom Conti's daughter.

Elsewhere, there's music from Irish rockers The Script and even more music from Matt and Brydon himself.

The line between who are the guests and who is the host on this show is nicely blurred and if it weren't for the studio audience you could imagine this working just as well in Brydon's living room.

The best interview questions come from the audience, and there's some lively banter at the top of the show as we meet The Most Easily Shocked Woman in Britain.

Brydon's personalised chat show returns for a second run. It was entertaining last year in part because virtually all the guests were his friends, a shortcut he presumably can't use for ever. He does tonight though, chatting easily with Matt Lucas (Brydon worked on and appeared in Little Britain) about comedy, musical theatre and exactly how tall Tom Cruise is. They take the mickey and riff off each other in a way that most host/guest combinations never could. Brydon's opening banter with the studio audience is an offhand hoot as well. Brydon likes to jam with his musical guests, which has previously provided some unexpected spine-tinglers, but tonight's band is insipid talk-show scourge the Script. Brydon attempts an odd mime routine as they plod through a David Bowie cover, then lets them play their own song later on. The stand-up guest is Nina Conti, who's been doing her lo-fi ventriloquist routine for years, and should have it honed by now.

Matt Lucas is too frightened to go driving

Daydreaming Little Britain star Matt Lucas says he can't drive because he's frightened that he will drift off and crash.

Matt Lucas prepares for Les Miserables

Little Britain's Matt Lucas grins in delight after his West End debut in hit musical Les Miserables.