Shaparak Khorsandi

He might be a friend of Ricky Gervais and a radio panel game regular, but Robin Ince isn't your average stand-up. He also runs a comedy institution called The Book Club, which involves him reading aloud from random second-hand tomes, and is a vocal atheist who curates gigs themed around science, Darwin and rationalism. This is a TV version of his festive variety show 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People, which combines gags from Dara O'Briain, Al Murray, Shappi Khorsandi and Chris Addison with music, plus more intellectual fare from scientists and writers - the movement's daddy, Richard Dawkins, among them. Stimulating stuff.

8 Out Of 10 Cats is rapidly becoming the best panel show around, isn't it? I think a big part of that is how everyone seems to genuinely enjoy the experience. Half the guests on Have I Got News For You look scared out of their wits, or spend their time walking on eggshells, while Mock The Week has always been very competitive and male-dominated, with guests often left to flounder amidst the regulars...

There's just a more pleasant atmosphere on 8 Out Of 10 Cats nowadays, and I really respond to that. Team captains Jason Manford and Sean Lock openly laugh at each other's jokes, Jimmy Carr appears to have toned down his cattiness, and this episode's non-comedians (EastEnders' Charlie Clements, presenter Claudia Winkleman, popstar Jamelia) didn't embarass themselves.

In fact, it appears that producers everywhere have realized Jamelia's TV gold with her ill-informed opinions and, well, good-natured stupidity. Can you believe she home-schools her kids?! She was better value than Iranian comedienne Shappi Khorsandi in this first episode, too. Shappi fell into the trap of mostly sitting on the sidelines and smiling at everyone else's gags, unless that was just very unfortunate editing. Also, am I alone in finding Sean Lock absolutely hi-larious on this show? The strange thing is, I find Lock's standup rather dull and tedious.

The game show in which panellists aim to conceal truthful statements within falsehood-strewn speeches returns for its fourth series, with David Mitchell as its sardonic host. This raucous first episode was recorded at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The panellists - Rhod Gilbert, Adam Hills, Shappi Khorsandi and Reginald D Hunter - touch upon ingeniously weird topics such as whether Rudyard Kipling invented the game of snow golf (by painting his balls red so that they may be seen against the icy whiteness), and whether Edward VII had a golf bag made from an elephant's scrotum.

Shappi Khorsandi interview

As she takes to the stage at the Edinburgh festival, comedienne Shappi Khorsandi talks about her father's exile, bulimia and why she has taken refuge in comedy.

On Thursday (Radio 4, 6.30pm) the wonderful Shappi Khorsandi continued her excellent Shappi Talk, in which she discusses her own unconventional upbringing and gets other people along to talk about theirs. Last Thursday's programme was about parents. Khorsandi is Iranian and, she said, when she was growing up she wanted to become a doctor. "My parents pushed me into stand-up comedy. They said: 'Only Western whores become doctors.'" And so on in like vein.

Her father, as many know, was a satirist who got into the sort of trouble satirists get into in Iran. "The regime there robustly advocates free speech," Khorsandi said, "but there is no freedom after you've exercised it. He criticised the mullahs and things became a bit ... death-y."

The Khorsandis went into exile in Britain - "A fatwa is the closest thing an Iranian writer gets to a literary prize" - where, of course, Khorsandi has now become a glittering addition to the comedic firmament. And a published author. "I said to my Dad: 'I've written a book.' He said: 'Has anyone threatened to kill you?' And I said no and he said: 'Then it can't be very good.'" There are two more programmes. Try not to miss them.

Shappi on assassination threat

Comedian Shappi Khorsandi, 35, was born in Iran but fled to Britain with her family after the 1979 revolution when her father received death threats for writing jokes about the Islamic regime.

Talented comedian Shappi Khorsandi has been about quite a bit recently - whether appearing on Have I Got News for You or giving interviews about her satirist father's longtime exile from Iran and her upbringing in the UK from the age of six (a rich source for her stand-up material). So I was a bit bemused by the first of her four shows - this one's about racism. Initially sounding like a traditional stand-up with an audience, her routine is then punctuated by an interview with Meera Syal, a short set by Felix Dexter and a comedy song from Hils Barker. There are some funny observations from Shappi about the "rainbow of thuggery" in today's multicultural gangs and what being of mixed race really means. Perhaps she should do more of the talking and less of the interviewing/introducing.

New comedy series from Shappi Khorsandi, whose lilting voice and ingenue manner have brought lots of bookings on chat and panel shows, whose Anglo-Iranian background comes in handy for longer interviews (on a recent Front Row, for instance). Here she will explore four themes, talking to people whose views compare, compliment, maybe contradict her experience of being from a non-British family. Today it's racism. Khorsandi's guests are Meera Syal, writer, actress, comedian (whose early big breaks came on Radio 4) and St Kitts-born comedian Felix Dexter.

Michael McIntyre continues his stand-up roadshow with a stop at the Birmingham Hippodrome. There's the usual fast-paced introduction from McIntyre, followed by sets from a wry Canadian called Tom Stade, a wild-haired Australian called Steve Hughes and an energetic Yorkshireman called Paul Tonkinson. The evening ends with a set by Shappi Khorsandi, a female Iranian stand-up who, she confesses, would rather have been a horse.

The quality of the comedians appearing on this show is astounding. Obviously one or two were bound to be good, but to come up with a royal flush week after week seems to defy the laws of probability. After McIntyre's usual full-throttle intro, Tom Stade - an American living in Wolverhampton - tells a single story about a man selling meat from the back of a van. Paul Tonkinson points out some of the difficulties involved in making yourself a quick sandwich when you're in a relationship. Steve Hughes, a hairy man from Australia, launches an attack on health and safety and political correctness, and this glorious evening ends with the headline act from Shappi Khorsandi, who is that rare thing - a female stand-up comic from Iran.