Pete Naughton

Free-wheeling Geordie comic Ross Noble, award-winning R&B singer Jamelia and the academic and journalist Germaine Greer are Frank Skinner's guests on tonight'' edition of this long-running comedy show. They give good value for money, campaigning for a wide range of items to be sent to their doom in Room 101 - including health and safety, actors, text speak and folk dancing.

Ever since Rod Hull and the terrifyingly blank-eyed Emu gave Michael Parkinson a mauling on his programme in 1976, chat show hosts have been understandably cagey about inviting puppets into their studios. Top marks for bravery, then, to Jonathan Ross, who welcomes Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy onto his sofa tonight. They'll be there, ostensibly, to discuss the forthcoming Muppets movie, but it'll be a small miracle if Ross manages to avoid at least a mild handbagging.

The balance of civility should be redressed by his other big-name guest of the night, Hugh Bonneville, who - in spite of having become one of Britain's best-known actors for his starring role in Downton Abbey - remains the picture of a modest English gentleman. He'll be talking, amongst other things, about the much-anticipated third series of Downton, which is set in the Twenties and is due to begin on ITV1 in September. Completing the line-up, the young comedian Jack Whitehall - whose cocksure manner and fondness for one-liners is reminiscent of a young Jonathan Ross - is given a chance to crack wise, and Sheffield-born indie rockers Arctic Monkeys provide the music.

Expect Olympic levels of glitter, fanfare and A-list excitement on Graham Norton's show tonight, as Madonna, shape-shifting queen of pop, arrives in the studio to discuss her life, career and the forthcoming release of W.E. - a romantic drama about the life of Wallis Simpson, which she co-wrote and directed. James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough, who play King Edward VIII and Simpson, also drop in to talk about their roles.

Having proved his mettle on shows like Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and Lee Mack's All Star Cast, the charmingly eccentric stand-up comic Milton Jones turns his hand to sitcom tonight with this one-off pilot episode. Sadly no preview discs were available, but the set-up looks promising, with Jones starring as a gaffe-prone man who lives with his mother and a handful of lodgers in a battered old house. If past form is anything to go by, viewers can expect a good deal of surreal humour and some brilliant non-sequiturs.

In terms of laughs-per-minute, this brilliant documentary profiling the life and work of the late Northern comedian Les Dawson is the one to beat tonight. Featuring many guffaw-inducing clips of Dawson in performance (sample quote: "I'd like to play you something by Mozart, but I won't because he never plays any of mine") as well as interviews with John Cleese, Jon Culshaw and others, it's a welcome celebration of one of the last century's most gifted comics.

David Croft, who died in September, will go down as one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in the history of British TV comedy, having co-written and produced a raft of our most popular sitcoms, including Dad's Army, 'Allo! 'Allo! and Are You Being Served? This hour-long documentary celebrates his work, alongside that of long-term collaborators Jimmy Perry and Jeremy Lloyd - and features more than a few riotously funny clips from the shows themselves.

The last two years have been undoubtedly kind to family-friendly comedians like Michael McIntyre and John Bishop, whose inoffensive humour rose to prominence in the wake of the "Sachsgate" scandal. Tonight, Bishop continues to keep a firm grip on the reins with a festive special of his BBC One sketch and stand-up show, inviting a Manchester theatre audience to join him in jovial discussion of Christmas in Britain.

Olivier Award-winning playwright Michael Wynne turns his hand to TV comedy tonight, with this one-off special about a close-knit Birkenhead family who decide to pull out the stops and go to Lapland for Christmas. It stars the excellent Sue Johnston - best known as Barbara Royle from The Royle Family - as the family's benevolent matriarch, Eileen; with support from a strong ensemble cast, including Elizabeth Berrington (Waterloo Road) as her overstressed daughter Paula and Stephen Graham (This Is England) as her long-suffering son Pete. Being a British comedy, it doesn't take long for the infighting to start, and the film contains a handful of smartly observed scenes that will be familiar to many viewers - from the grandmother being used as a permanently on-call nanny by her own children, to the simmering family grievances vented after a few glasses of sherry, to the difficulty of keeping older siblings from spoiling the magic of Father Christmas for their younger brothers and sisters. At points, this takes the programme more into the realm of edgy, Shameless-style drama than gentle festive comedy; but Wynne manages to sugar the pill with a good deal of warm Northern humour.

After four years and as many series, this sitcom about the daily life of a middle-class family in south London still manages that rare feat of being genuinely funny. Tonight's festive special follows the misadventures of Pete Brockman (Hugh Dennis) and his wife Sue (Claire Skinner) as they take their family to the Canary Islands. They're hoping to spend a sunny, stress-free Christmas - doubtless a prelude to a comic disaster.

Now in their 21st year, the British Comedy Awards have long served as a bellwether for the state of British comedy, from the quirky satire of the early 1990s, through the energetic sketch shows of the mid- to late-90s, to the recent success of family-friendly stand-up comics like Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre and John Bishop. Thanks to a sharp host, a ready supply of funny clips and a suitably witty audience, they've also been one of the few live awards ceremonies actually worth watching.

Tonight's event is hosted live by Jonathan Ross. Leading the nominees is Miranda Hart, who is up for four awards, while Harry Hill gets three nods. Hart, last year's Queen of Comedy winner, is up for the award again, with David Mitchell, Telegraph agony uncle Graham Norton, Jack Whitehall, Jo Brand and Sarah Millican also in the running. Tamsin Greig and Tom Rosenthal are nominated for best TV comedy actress and best comedy breakthrough artist respectively for their roles in Friday Night Dinner, while Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner have been singled out for their contribution to Outnumbered. Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville receives a nomination for his role in the Olympic comedy Twenty Twelve.