Rob Brydon

Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon: What makes a good road trip

We cornered Rob Brydon and recent Oscar nominee Steve Coogan in a Park City eatery, and asked them for a few road-trip tips. They were all too happy to oblige.

Video: The Trip to Italy with Coogan and Brydon

One of the more eagerly awaited films at the Sundance Film Festival has been The Trip to Italy - a sequel to Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's 2010 adventures.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite for Italian job

Three years on from 2010's The Trip, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have reunited with director Michael Winterbottom for a sequel The Trip to Italy. According to Coogan, "it's exactly the same but sunnier."

Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon take The Trip to Italy

The gastronomic TV comedy The Trip is returning. We join its two stars during filming in Italy and find their relationship has blossomed - with the help of some more fine dining.

The spirits are high but the japes are deliciously low-down and dirty as Rob Brydon twinkles with seasonal cheer for this Christmas helping of tall tales. Did Stephen Mangan's Bedlington Terrier get its name by wagging its tail at the gravestone of a man called John Samuels? Lee Mack tries to dig up the truth, alongside Barry Cryer and Miles Jupp, while Mangan's partners in guile are David Mitchell and Miranda Hart.

David Walliams calls in a lifetime's worth of showbiz favours to create this talent-strewn version of his bestselling children's novel. Young Ben (Reece Buttery) is dispatched to stay with his grandmother, who runs a tight ship based on nights in, Scrabble and cabbage soup. He is, understandably, bored out of his tiny mind. Until somehow it transpires that gran was once an international jewel thief and she needs her grandson's help to tie up some unfinished business. Cue a crazy romp that takes in a meeting with the Queen (played by Joanna Lumley) and the unwanted interventions of a nosy neighbour (Rob Brydon). Walliams himself appears as Ben's Strictly-obsessed dad, opposite Miranda Hart as his mum. 
What japes.

Is Alan Partridge morphing into Tommy Saxondale?

Steve Coogan's inability to escape his most successful character was mined for some of the best material in The Trip, his 2010 collaboration with Rob Brydon and Michael Winterbottom. For a minority however, myself included, it's Tommy Saxondale that's the more complex character and one that has managed to seep, intentionally or otherwise, into the version of Alan Partridge we meet in the 2013 feature-length outing Alpha Papa.

Rob Brydon: I hope MBE was for comedy

Rob Brydon has told the Queen he hoped his recently awarded MBE was more for comedy than charity.

Jack Whitehall's star continues to rise and, rather endearingly, he's inviting his dad along for the ride. Having written a book and done stand-up together, Michael (a theatrical agent) and his son have bagged their own chat show. If the guestlist for tonight's opener is anything to go by, it should be both eclectic and hilarious. Imagine, for example, Jeremy Paxman's face when he was told he would be sharing airtime with Sir Daniel of Dyer?

But a word of warning. It's not the first time a comedian has had their parent on the show. Maybe it's kinder to use Adam & Joe's Bad Dad as the barometer, rather than the presenter's mum on The Matt Lucas Awards. Preceded by a live Whitehall gig at 9pm, Backchat may yet shed the curse of the BBC comedian-led talk-show that has beleaguered everyone from Sarah Millican to Rob Brydon.

Here Be Dragons throws spotlight on new Welsh talent

A new comedy series that showcases Welsh comics following in the footsteps of Rhod Gilbert and Rob Brydon premieres tonight.