Rob Brydon

Gavin & Stacey's late developer Rob Brydon

He was rejected from RADA for being too provincial and told he had a face made for voice-overs (for toilet duck). How did Rob Brydon fight back? Two words: Uncle Bryn.

You need to watch QI. I don't know if you know it at all, it's been around for a while in England. Stephen Fry's the host, Alan Davies is the permanent guest star and there's a rotating panel of famous people whose qualification for being on is they're amusing. Or Quite Interesting, which is what QI stands for. It's really just people talking shit. Tonight they're Rob Brydon, Andy Hamilton and Charlie Higson. I only really know Rob Brydon, and I love him. He's in Gavin & Stacey at the moment, it was on UKTV last night, he plays Bryn, Stacey's uncle. The topics on QI are letters from the alphabet, we're up to the Fs at this point, a fair way into the series. But it's a loose half hour. Tonight includes James Bond's job, Mick Jagger's walk, Bert Ward's post-Batman and Robin career in porn, and flags. Quite a lot about flags - extremely entertaining and mindless, just what you need during stressful times of (insert source of personal worry here). Even the buzzers are good - Andy Hamilton's is the Captain Pugwash music.

Tonight's is another ludicrously enjoyable edition of the fib-based panel show that will, if you're not very careful, have you giggling like a schoolgirl throughout. Mind you, there's an uncharacteristic lapse early on when guest panellist Sir Chris Hoy makes a claim that even by the standards of this series is clatteringly implausible. Do we for a moment buy the idea that Sir Chris was approached by Nasa to cycle on the Moon? I mean, come on. After that, truth and lies become harder to separate as we mull over whether Gabby Logan wears red underwear when she presents a show for the first time and whether Lee Mack was force-fed custard creams at school. Host Rob Brydon is on sparkling form and David Mitchell is, you won't be surprised to hear, effortlessly funny. But was the only time he ever went to a live music concert a trip to see Shirley Bassey?

Rob Brydon Interview

Rob Brydon: "Lots of things, momentous things, happen. I can say Uncle Bryn is in it a lot, I think he has more to do than he has in previous series."

The best bit this week is David Mitchell's sort-of impression of Jodie Marsh (she's a "glamour model", the one who isn't Jordan). Of course Mitchell is ill-equipped even to approximate Ms Marsh's two famously overblown assets, but he does a very decent career precis of the big-bosomed one's raison d'etre, albeit delivered in his exasperated A-level history teacher's voice. It's pretty much down to captains Mitchell and Lee Mack to keep things going, with some lacklustre guests. Jimmy Carr is impossible to like; Terry Christian is clearly baffled and well aware that he's out of his depth, to the point that you might end up feeling sorry for him; and singer Jamelia yet again inexplicably turns up on a TV panel show. Host Rob Brydon helps the show bounce along as he referees the arguments and interrogations: was Christian interrogated by police hunting a jewel thief? And did comedian Marcus Brigstocke work as a podium dancer?

Would I Lie To You? Review

"I'm going to hate this aren't I?" bristled David Mitchell as new host Rob Brydon prepared to recite from the Cockney Bible. But raising the hackles of the amusing Mitchell is one of the conceits that Would I Lie To You? relies on to thrive and survive.

There are a lot of food-based fibs in tonight's breezy show. There's Fern Britton's tea, Lee Mack with his sausage rolls, Stephen Mangan talking about a Mini-Cooper full of sweets and American stand-up Reginald D Hunter, who claims that the D in his name stands for 'Delicious'. Personally, I think it's more likely to stand for 'Deadpan' - this guy's poker face is better than Lady Gaga's.

Also on tonight's show, Ken Livingstone says the word "anus" a lot. Honestly. Host Rob Brydon and team captain David Mitchell look suitably shocked.

Rob Brydon: 'I have to sing for my supper'

Quips come effortlessly to comedian Rob Brydon. But, constantly being funny is very hard work.

Would I Lie To You? is yet another comedy quiz show, this one inviting the usual assortment of stand-ups and guest celebrities to tell convincing fibs. It is Call My Bluff basically, replacing words with deeds.

It is very cheap and cheerful fare that depends almost entirely on the charm of those involved. Rob Brydon is the genial host, David Mitchell and Lee Mack the suitably contrasting captains, and they are do what is required of them with frightening efficiency. But the formula pokes through like the ribs on a starving man, and I found the whole show somewhat depressing.

One thing did intrigue me, however. In a show about deception how come nobody pointed out the miraculous reappearance of a full head of hair on the recently thinning Brydon?

By and large, I'm allergic to TV comedy panel shows, a genre that seems populated by a back-scratching bunch of comedy circuit regulars who need precious little encouragement to demonstrate how amazingly witty they can be when following an autocue. But I'll make an exception for Would I Lie To You?, particularly now Rob Brydon has slipped cheekily into the chair's chair.

For one thing the format - basically spotting who's telling porkies - encourages embarrassment and absurdity rather than lame attempts at proving how cutting-edge and down with the times the panellists are. For another it allows team captain David Mitchell to be searingly sceptical with a dash of disdain for half an hour. That boy can wither for England.