Ricky Hatton

Boxing champion Ricky Hatton to dance for Comic Relief

The former world boxing champion Ricky Hatton will be among unlikely celebrities putting on their dancing shoes for Let's Dance for Comic Relief next month, it was announced last night.

Half an hour in the company of John Bishop would be reason enough to tune in, but he's plundered his address book and persuaded his celebrity pals to dust off their favourite one-liners.

Robbie Williams, John Prescott, Ricky Hatton, Freddie Flintoff and Warwick Davis all do their best to make us giggle, along with fellow stand-ups Jason Manford, Jason Byrne, Andi Osho and Mick Miller.

Members of the public are also given the chance to exercise their funny bone, including an impish schoolboy with a joke about poo (naturally) and a side-splitting laugh. As you'd expect from that line-up, it's a mixed bag but squeaky clean, so there's no need to cover young ears.

John Bishop's new vehicle is a resolutely family-friendly throwback to the days of The Comedians, when TV standup was a relentless stream of "fella-walked-into-a-bar" jokes that steadfastly avoided any reference to life as actually lived. A cast of thousands are involved, including celebrities from Ricky Hatton and Robbie Williams to ordinary folk, telling creaky jokes that at least crease them up. All this is peppered with occasional pellets of non-abrasive observational humour from smirk-merchants such as Jason Manford.

John Bishop's new series serves scant purpose other than for the comedian to act as compere for a series of clips of fellow stand-ups (among them Jason Manford, Jason Byrne and Mick Miller), celebrities (including Jamie Redknapp, Ricky Hatton, John Prescott and Freddie Flintoff) and members of the public, telling jokes. The series runs to 10 episodes and is entirely dependent on the quality of jokes, which on tonight's evidence aren't very good. They are, however, squeaky clean, so at least it's an option for entertaining family viewing.