Ronni Ancona

Ronni Ancona: My heart still aches over stillborn Seth

Comedian Ronni Ancona has spoken for the first time about the tragic loss of her stillborn son - in a bid to save lives.

Ronni Ancona joins Comic Relief's desert trek in Kenya

My involvement with Comic Relief over the past 10 years has always been in a comedic capacity, but I'd always wanted to visit one of the regions where they spend the money that's raised. I was asked if I'd like to join a group of celebrities trekking 107 kilometres across the Kaisut Desert in Kenya to raise awareness of the urgent eye care needed there and the millions of Africans who are at risk of losing their sight because of preventable and treatable conditions.

Portrait of the artist: Ronni Ancona, comedian

'Satire is in danger of becoming strangled because celebrity culture has become so extreme'

The BBC's successful Grumpy Old franchise - in which various aged or ageing TV pundits are encouraged to grouse on about a given topic - rolls on with this new programme focusing on the supposedly cheerful experience of mandatory education. Expect wry classroom anecdotage from the likes of Al Murray, Shappi Khorsandi, Ronni Ancona and Mark Radcliffe.

The BBC's successful Grumpy Old franchise - in which various aged or ageing TV pundits are encouraged to grouse on about a given topic - rolls on with this new programme focusing on the supposedly cheerful experience of mandatory education. Expect wry classroom anecdotage from the likes of Al Murray, Shappi Khorsandi, Ronni Ancona and Mark Radcliffe.

When writer and impressionist Ronni Ancona appears on QI, the show is sometimes a little less funny than usual but always greatly more interesting and even absorbing. She was a boon to QI and proves to be the same again here as she takes the role of first interviewer in a new run of the tag-team chat show. Her guest is comic Lee Mack, who has as many one-liners at his command as you'd hope and expect but gets drawn into richer areas about working in comedy. This is the joy of Chain Reaction: the guest is interviewed by someone who really knows their work and enjoys pressing for information that lighter chat shows miss. And you'll never guess who Lee Mack chooses to interview in next week's episode.

The 1980s, according to the blurb for this, was a decade "defined by vacuity". You could say the same about branded "list" shows and talking-heads compilations, but the Grumpy series has often shown itself to be the best of a bad bunch and this programme includes contributions from Ronni Ancona, Fiona Allen and Alistair McGowan, who delivers bang-on impressions of pop singing styles of the era. Spandau Ballet, Roland Rat, Cabbage Patch Dolls, shoulder pads, big hair - easy targets one and all.

In a merciless variation on a tribute show, a host of comedians and celebrities line up to lampoon Sharon Osbourne. At the start, the host Jimmy Carr compares her to the Queen. "Her children are dysfunctional. Her husband is incoherent and nobody is really sure what she does." Thereafter, the likes of Alan Carr, Ronni Ancona and Louis Walsh take to the podium and let rip about her age, her plastic surgery, her husband, her incontinent dogs, her foul mouth and her fashion mistakes, while she sits at a table and cackles loudly. The highlights of the evening are Ancona reading extracts from Osbourne's new novel, Revenge, and Patrick Kielty risking his life to mock her parenting skills. "What a delightful evening it's been," says a glum Jack Dee.

Like a best man speech for a celebrity, the roast - where a famous guest of honour is mercilessly insulted by other celebs - is a long-standing ­tradition in the US. Channel 4 has imported the concept and tonight it's the turn of Sharon Osbourne - a human equivalent of an open goal.

Hosted by Jimmy Carr, this is the funniest and also the rudest hour of TV all week, with Jack Dee, Patrick Kielty, Gok Wan, Alan Carr, Louis Walsh, Ronni Ancona, Keith Lemon and Elton John paying acid-tongued tribute to Sharon's extensive plastic surgery, mothering skills and propensity for sending dog poo to her enemies.

And this put-down from Patrick Kielty shows that nothing is too near to the knuckle. "It's fair to say that Ozzy has never strayed," he quips. "He did once make a dash for freedom but after Sharon cut the brakes on the quad bike, he's now learned his lesson..."

It's so rare to see two women sitting next to each other on a comedy panel show that even Sandi Toksvig seemed surprised. On QI last week Toksvig and team-mate Ronni Ancona had a witty old time sparring with Jack Dee and Alan Davies - even if the episode was called Girls and Boys and had questions all about girls and, er, boys. The show was funny, as QI usually is. Which is just the point. Women can perform brilliantly on panel shows, so why don't they appear more often? The usual one lass, three lads format is as tired patronising and boring as the older male/younger woman newsreading cliche. It's time for change.