Nina Conti

Programmes that pull together a bunch of festival turns are often ragged and random - not this one. As your compere Arthur Smith explains at the top of the show, all the acts have at least a modicum of BBC4 sensibility about them. Alex Horne and his, um, Horne Section offer silly but dazzling musical comedy, while Tim Key does something similarly clever and stupid with his poems. David O'Doherty has a Bontempi organ and a unique way with words, while Nina Conti offers an ingenious and brilliantly improvised variation on her familiar ventriloquist routine.

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.

Audio: Stephen Fry interviews Nina Conti and Monkey

An extended interview with Nina Conti, who talks to Stephen Fry about the significance of mouth control. She is aided by Monkey, who speaks for himself on the subject.

Russell Kane wins Barry Award for best in show

Tough times can be a boon for funny business. We need a laugh, and comics need a quid. Perhaps that's why this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival saw an unprecedented number of Barry Award winners returning to Melbourne's stages: last year's best of the fest Sammy J & Randy went up alongside Barry alumni Daniel Kitson, Nina Conti, Maria Bamford and The Pajama Men, many of whom enjoyed sellout shows throughout the festival.

Edinburgh fringe comedy round-up

From Des Bishop and Greg Davies to Nina Conti and Pippa Evans, reviews the best of this year's word-of-mouth comedy hits.

Interview: Nina Conti

Top comedy ventriloquist Nina Conti talks about new characters, puppet festivals and her most cringe-worthy gig, ahead of her Edinburgh 2010 show.

Sally Phillips plays Clare, self-absorbed social worker and new mother in the latest series of the sitcom by Harry Venning and David Ramsden. In their meticulously observed comedy of modern manners, Liza Tarbuck plays best friend Helen, Alex Lowe is Brian, the proud new father, whose best mate is Simon (Andrew Wincott), Helen's ex-husband. Nina Conti retains her role of put-upon Megan and doubles up as Nali, the au pair (not nearly as put-upon as she at first seems). Meanwhile, is this baby to be called Mandela, Mahatma or Thomas Paine?