Michael McIntyre

Self-described camp Gok Wan lookalike Michael McIntyre heads off stage and onto a comfy-looking sofa as he becomes the latest celebrity to take a shot at fronting a chatshow. These things are completely awful when they don't work - the Beeb is probably still baring scars from Davina - and Michael isn't exactly being eased in gently, with mouthy pot stirrer Lily Allen and grumpy old man Lord Sugar among his first guests.

Still, Michael has been able to elicit chuckles from both comedy sophisticates and families just looking for something on TV to pass the time, so we're optimistic about this being watchable. Plus, he's got Sir Terry Wogan on as his third guest to help calm things down to a Radio 2 level of chill if need be. It's worth tuning in to for the sake of curiosity alone.

A three-hour compilation called Greatest Stand Up Comedians proved this to exhaustion, by butchering the stage routines of 50 famous comics.

Without the build-up, the timing and the audience rapport, most of the gags weren't even recognisable as jokes. It was like listening to five-second snatches of songs - pointless and frustrating. One of the rare moments worth a laugh came from Lily Savage: 'I've got a brother, our Archie. I hate him. The only reason I speak to him is you never know when you'll need a kidney.'

Shows like this are mostly padding, waffle from talking heads with just a taste of the real thing. That's usually because short clips can be broadcast under 'fair usage' agreements, with no fee; longer clips cost money.

So most of the three hours boiled down to different ways of saying something was funny: 'He's just an incredibly brilliant comedian'; 'Hilarious, I mean hilarious'; 'He is one of the comedy greats, no doubt.'

In case we hadn't noticed how incredibly brilliantly hilarious this all was, narrator Meera Syal kept saying, 'There's more merriment, wit and hilarity on its way,' or, 'We've giggled, tittered and guffawed our way to the end.'

But the real reason for the one-star rating is that Michael McIntyre was rated the seventh most uproarious comic ever . . . 37 places above Frankie Howerd. That's not even funny.

Michael McIntyre's Christmas Charity Show, review

Now in its fourth year, Michael McIntyre's seasonal stand-up show is so delightfully exuberant - and packed with good gags - it should surely be televised in future.

Eddie Izzard is your host tonight as the mainstream comedy slot returns. After his stints in Hollywood dramas, it's genuinely strange to see Izzard doing his uniquely bewildering surrealism again, even if you suspect that it might be a bit much for the Michael McIntyre crowd. More easily assimilated stuff is at hand with the reliably baleful Josh Widdicombe and show-closer Trevor Noah. Noah's bits on growing up in apartheid-era South Africa and on learning German from Hitler speeches are, as Izzard suggests, "annoyingly good".

Michael McIntyre announces Christmas charity show lineu

Michael McIntyre has announced the details of his fourth annual Christmas charity show.

After buying a house with a tennis court attached, Jonathan Ross developed a love of the game that finds him knocking up with a comedy coterie including Michael McIntyre, Jimmy Carr and David Baddiel. Tips from a Wimbledon champion are quite another thing, though, and having predicted that Andy Murray would triumph earlier this year, Ross welcomes him to the sofa to relive his glories.

They're joined by Celine Dion, whose new studio album Loved Me Back To Life is her first big English-language release since 2007. Perhaps unfairly, neither Murray nor Dion are known for their comedy punchlines, so Johnny Vegas and John Barrowman will be bringing the funny.

Michael McIntyre profile

An interview with and profile of Michael McIntyre from an Australian newspaper.

Stewart Lee: The achetypal smug leftie comedian? Moi?

"There was a newspaper article saying I had reduced Michael McIntyre's wife to tears at an awards ceremony or something. I wasn't even at the ceremony but because of one line I used about McIntyre I'm now accused of hating him."