Paul Foot (I)

UK comedians lead the way at Melbourne festival

Tim Key, Dave Gorman and Paul Foot shortlisted for Australian international comedy festival's top award.

Audio: Humour Me with Paul Foot

Paul Foot co-presents comedy podcast Humour Me.

I just recorded Never Mind The Buzzcocks. It's quite an odd experience these days, post-Amstell. He used to chat to the pop guests so much it felt like Parkinson. Nowadays they don't get much attention at all. And the rounds whizz by with markedly less banter because whoever's hosting tends to try and follow producers' instructions, which generally run along the lines of 'stop those people talking about anal sex' or whatever the riff du jour is.

Strangely, after 25 series, Buzzcocks is starting to resemble a pop quiz again.

Still - I was never much good at banter so it suits me quite well to sit there and finish off the odd song lyric. I wore a suit, if you like that kind of thing. The show was hosted by Will Young, who is charming. And it mostly centres around Paul Foot. Who is very funny. You can watch it on Halloween night, if you're not too busy dressing as a cat or Satan.

Fringe 2011 comedy: five free shows

Featuring Hatty Ashdown, Jody Kamali, Paul Foot, Norman Lovett and Gadd, Kirk and Winning.

Interview: Patrick Turpin (Leeds Comedy Festival)

Last week saw the official launch for Laughter Lines Comedy Festival in Leeds, and the full line up has now been announced with comic heavyweights such as Brendon Burns, Paul Foot and Alun Cochrane all performing. The festival is the brainchild of Leeds University student Patrick Turpin, who set up Laughter Lines to try and bring the best of local, national and international talent to a new audience in Leeds at an affordable price. Pete Starr caught up with Turpin to talk about the inception of the festival.

There was life before Simon Amstell, though Never Mind the Buzzcocks doesn't seem to know it. A full series after the catty, facetious quiz host left to write and star in Grandma's House, programme-makers are still fumbling around without a replacement.

Instead, they have stuck with a rota of guest-hosts who, if not the most adept at cracking jokes, at least offer punchlines for some. The concept worked last series: Amstell was so strong in his role that a revolving door created a pleasing sense of differentiation. By now, though, they should have settled on their candidate. No longer novel, the post-Amstell gimmick just seems like a compromise. Which, most of the time, it is.

Last night, particularly so. Mark Ronson - a previous contestant on the programme - took centre stage, offering a (fairly) amusing line about his hair (recently peroxided a ghostly white-blond, it boasts, observed one contestant, an uncanny resemblance to the style favoured by Tintin). Aside from the opener, he wasn't up for much. Not his fault; he's not a comedian.

The team captains did rather better: Phill Jupitus is still there, alongside newer arrival Noel Fielding. One of the big successes of the post-Amstell era has been Fielding's recruitment. Not just because he is hilarious - which he is - but also because he brings in some of the funniest guests. The format dictates that each team captain brings a guest to their benches: Fielding, like a naughty child at show-and-tell, produced fellow funnyman Paul Foot who, it transpired, would provide the biggest laughs of the whole thing.

Elsewhere, offerings were rather less lively: rapper Tinie Tempah, Mollie King of The Saturdays and safe-bet Alesha Dixon (she's been here before). No one was made fun of quite as they once were; when they are, the joke remains snugly PR-friendly. The competition rounds are much the same as they ever were; everyone knows what obstacle they'll face. Never Mind the Buzzcocks might be back, but - from the 'slebs' point of view - there's not that much to mind.

Continuing its post-Amstell coping strategy of a HIGNFY-style rotating host, Buzzcocks is back for a 24th series, showing more longevity than most of the popstars it has on it. The surprisingly affable Mark Ronson takes the chair and attempts to rein in returning team leaders Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding[, who get Alesha Dixon, Mollie King from the Saturdays, Tinie Tempah and Paul Foot as their guests. Future hosts look likely to include Josh Groban, Tim Westwood and Frankie Boyle. No Dappy from N-Dubz?

The pop quiz's new season gets under way not, we're sorry to say, with the eagerly awaited edition in which guest host Jack Dee reportedly "almost" reduced irksome pop twins Jedward to tears with his barbs. Instead, ice-cool "pop sensation" Mark Ronson hosts - but there's still fun aplenty as team captains Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding are joined by Alesha Dixon, Mollie King of The Saturdays, rapper Tinie Tempah and surreally coiffed comedian Paul Foot.

The pop quiz is back for its second series without Simon Amstell - it coped just fine last year. On Phill Jupitus's team tonight: syntax-mangling Strictly judge Alesha Dixon, and Mollie King of the Saturdays - a girlband so nondescript, Mollie could appear in the line-up round. With Noel Fielding, it's rapper Tinie Tempah and comic Paul Foot. Even the guest host has something to promote: it's Mark Ronson, who has a new album out. But if he's still got the bleached hairdo he sported on Later, that's one laugh in the bag already.