Paul Merton

Paul Merton UK tour with Out of My Head

The stand-up will be joined be Impro Chums Lee Simpson, Richard Vranch and Suki Webster.

Paul Merton talks about his return to stand-up

Paul Merton is excited. He's energised, enthused and if not exactly effervescent when we speak, then he's certainly not far off. And the cause of all this ebullience? His first date at the Liverpool Empire in more than a decade, on his first stand-up tour this century.

If I may say this without repetition, hesitation or deviation, a radio institution celebrates an anniversary on Monday as the splendid Nicholas Parsons introduces the panel show he has chaired since its inception in just a minute.

Doubtless the shades of such esteemed departed panellists as Clement Freud and Kenneth Williams will be issuing some hollow challenges from the wings as panellists Ross Noble, Jenny Eclair, Gyles Brandreth and Paul Merton are asked to pontificate on subjects given out in the original series back in 1967, from "Why I Wear a Top Hat" to "Knitting a Cablestitch Jumper".

A revamped Room 101, with a tinder-dry Frank Skinner stepping bravely into Paul Merton's shoes and playing a blinder, is a winner in its new format, having all three guests there simultaneously, and categorised rounds. Robert Webb roughly won, mainly by sending Jeremy Kyle - goodness but there were some worrying clips - into the masher, though Danny Baker, with his honestly newfound if existentially confusing hatred of TV panel games - "just a Jeremy Kyle show that's been though college" - was the true hit. That's not the point. This is. During the titles of this programme, which if you've forgotten is about things we all hate, up popped the phrase "unexpected item in baggage area".

It's back, with shiny new titles, Frank Skinner in place of Paul Merton and not one but three guests competing to have pet hates banished for ever. Robert Webb, Danny Baker and Fern Britton select peeves such as homework, sci-fi, PE and punk, but it has all the awkwardness of a bad dinner party and little of the easy, intimate wit and banter of the original show; the best fun to be had is Webb's seeming disdain for the rather tedious Britton, who seems to think she's on Grumpy Old Women. Maybe future contestants - among them Alistair McGowan, Josh Groban, Sarah Millican and Alice Cooper - will make this more likeable, though they'll have a job getting laughs from the likes of Gregg Wallace, Gabby Logan and Mark Lawrenson.

Room 101 is reducing the numeral of its network, moving from BBC2 to BBC1, while increasing the number of participants. Whereas previous hosts Nick Hancock and Paul Merton quizzed a single celebrity about their little list of things to be eliminated, new chairman Frank Skinner has a trio competing to delete. Friday's first panel is Fern Britton, Danny Baker and Robert Webb.

This is a big alteration - a chat-show becoming a panel game - and the presumable justification is a move to a more mainstream panel, although the obvious risk is that a show which had a distinctive premise and form has been made to look like several others. Rather inconveniently, Webb will have been seen 48 hours earlier on BBC1 in the now structurally similar Would I Lie To You?

This is one Christmas special from which you can't expect to hear too much goodwill to all men. It may have the jovial Martin Clunes returning for his tenth stint as guest host, but his hearty chuckle will not dull the sharp edge of Ian Hislop's satirical swipes at captains of industry, bankers, the Government, the opposition - anyone he feels he can accuse of hypocrisy basically.

Paul Merton's rants at the absurdities of the lighter side of the news should see Clunes's face crumple into paroxysms of laughter - he's always served as the lighter side to Hislop's more serious tone, but as the series has progressed the steady accumulation of idiocy in the world has proved enough to really get his goat.

Martin Clunes is a veteran host of the topical news quiz - and clearly a favourite, as he is invited back here to present the Christmas special. Never short of material, team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton have had almost too much to play with in 2011, what with the phone-hacking scandal leading to the public airing of the tabloid media's laundry.

Paul Merton returns to stand-up comedy

After an absence of 13 years, Merton will return to the stage next spring - with a little help from his improv friends.

Sid Field may not be known to many today but the music hall star is lauded by comedians for his technique; Winston Churchill and 'Laurence Olivier were among his fans. Despite the lack of archive footage and David Suchet's stilted presentation, Field's innovative style ("the supreme live performer") emerges thanks to the contributions of Paul Merton and Eric Sykes. The film takes in why it took so long for Field to hit the big time, why his switch to big-budget movies didn't work out and why he was so influential.