Rufus Hound

Rufus Hound interview

Rufus Hound answers questions like whether he is worried about promoting products as a comedian.

Radio 4's long-running The Unbelievable Truth, basically an update of Call My Bluff, seems to be the exception to the panel show rule in its capacity to entertain. This isn't surprising when you consider it was devised by the same people who dreamt up I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Granted, it has the same rotation of comedians - Jack Dee, Rufus Hound and Lee Mack were this week's guests - and is hosted by David Mitchell, a Stephen Fry-in-waiting who appears pathologically incapable of turning down work. But what it has going for it is an intellectual curiosity that this week turned up such invaluable facts as the radioactive properties of Brazil nuts, Florence Nightingale's love for her pet owl and Indonesia's 17 million boy scouts. The Unbelievable Truth wipes the floor with the competition. If only it could make the competition disappear altogether.

Panellists for new series of Heresy announced

Heresy, in which a panel of broadcasters pick apart everyday assumptions, will be bolstered by the presence of Peep Show star David Mitchell, Supersizer Sue Perkins, Googlewhacker Dave Gorman, actress Maureen Lipman, Private Eye medical correspondent Dr Phil Hammond and the moustachioed comedian Rufus Hound for its upcoming run.

Competition - win Rufus Hound and Jim Jefferies DVDs

Comedy Central is stumping up with some goodies, so you don't even have to go out the house to get your comedy fix.

Dave have decided to revive their panel show Argumental, but not to revive any of the regulars who appeared in the first three series, with John Sergeant, Marcus Brigstocke and Rufus Hound being replaced with Sean Lock, Seann Walsh and Robert Webb.

The main question with this change is, "Has it worked?" Well, in terms of banter between host and panel, it does seem to be better. I think that having a comedian rather than a journalist in the chair is going to increase the laughs, simply because Lock is more used to having to improvise on the spot, as well as being used to the panel show format as a captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats.

However, I've never really been keen on Webb's appearances on panel games. It doesn't seem to be his kind of format, unlike his comedy partner David Mitchell. I also think Walsh is the stronger performer, but despite this Webb won the first episode in the series...

The main highlight of the debut episode was guest Jimmy Carr having to argue that, "There's no place for women's sport on television," while standing next to Britain's only professional sumo wrestler, which is a rather terrifying prospect. You were just waiting for her to faux-lash out at him, but instead it was Walsh who offered to fight her.

I thought it was an OK debut, but it needs a few more episodes to bed in.

Rejoining the depressingly interchangeable comedy panel show circuit, the show returns for a fourth series on Dave. As the self-professed "home of witty banter", it should really be what it does best, as witty banter is precisely what Argumental hopes to synthesise. And when the insufferable Russell Kane isn't speaking, it has its moments. Sean Lock looks comfy, having replaced John Sergeant in the host's chair, while Robert Webb and stand-up Seann Walsh take on the roles of the new team captains, replacing the outgoing Rufus Hound and Marcus Brigstocke. Jimmy Carr also guests.

Rufus Hound's rant on Xtra Factor becomes online hit

X Factor star Cher Lloyd was reduced to hysterical laughter as comedian Rufus Hound slammed Kelly Rowland in a hilarious rant on last night's Xtra Factor.

Everyone likes Richard Bacon, don't they? Don't they? Oh, well, maybe the beer and pizza will attract some viewers. Here, Bacon invites his "celebrity mates" (what ever happened to a show simply having guests?) to his cosy pretend apartment to chew over the issues that affect all celebrities these days, in a hopefully comedic way. Guests - sorry "mates" - tonight include Rufus Hound, so extra toppings will likely involve too much cheese.

Janet Street-Porter is Rufus Hound's subject. She reads from her teenage journals, about being around in Soho in the Sixties. I seem to remember her writing about this time and being particularly vehement about the horrors of her home life, hence her outrageousness. But the thing about Janet is that the older she grows the nicer she gets. In the Seventies she was nakedly ambitious, in the Eighties ruthlessly power-hungry, in the Nineties she sold her fur coats, grew reflective and funnier. Once the century turned she started to become rather enviably sage.

Michael Winner proves shrewdly adept at self-deprecation. He only ever kept one diary, he tells host Rufus Hound, of a student trip he took to America in 1953 in his late teens, when it was a remote and romantic destination and the only plane route was via Iceland. As he reads from it here he keeps up a constant critique of his younger self for showing off, being arrogant, dumb. But he was already a published writer, having had a syndicated column since he was 14. No wonder he seemed so blasé about New York. "Pathetic, really," he says. But funny.