Sharon Lougher

It's nuts to be working with Steve Coogan

Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Tim Key, sometime guest star on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe and Newswipe, spills the beans on his latest show, Masterslut, which once again mixes poetry with deadpan delivery.

Yes, it's yet another talking heads/clips show but it does give us an opportunity to relive some cracking stand-up routines - last week's gave us Eddie Izzard covered in make-up and looking dazzling as he delivered his super skit about school-level French from his 1990s Dress To Kill show. This time, Bill Hicks rightly gets a look-in, as does Lee Evans's ingeniously physical Bohemian Rhapsody routine. Jonathan Ross, Micky Flanagan and Rich Hall are among those sharing their reverence.

This new comedy is sort of what The Inbetweeners would be like if they went to US summer camp - only it's nowhere near as funny. Flynn (Samuel Robertson), A-Rab (Arsher Ali) and Barry (John Dagleish) are three British chancers who arrive at a California camp with, variously, a broken heart, weed and an insatiable sex drive. Predictable encounters with the usual array of jocks and fat kids follow.

For better or worse, the comedy circuit gets its own X Factor - but the contestants who will be battling it out by gigging their way round the country have already been whittled down to ten. They include experienced hands such as Patrick Monahan and people who have never had a paid gig. The winner gets £100,000, a multi-date tour and their very own Christmas DVD. Cheeky QI chappy Alan Davies is a judge, while jovial Jason Manford, presumably hoping for a big-league bounce-back after his short-lived stint on The One Show and that 'sexting' to-do, hosts.

As the US remake invades our screens, here's a chance to celebrate the more wild, more energetic, and ultimately superior original. Watch real-life lovebirds Anne-Marie Duff and James McAvoy dance a merry dance as Gallagher family linchpin Fiona and her car-nicking boyfriend Steve, and revel in David Threlfall's career-defining turn as drunken philosopher Frank, to which, as yet, Willam H Macy hasn't been able to hold a candle.

Bill Bailey interview

Bill Bailey discusses headlining the Sonisphere festival at Knebworth House, what he thinks of modern music, why religion makes him angry and what it's like having a plant named after you.

William H Macy: The original Shameless series is genius

William H Macy and the rest of the Shameless US cast reveal whether they think unglamorous sex and non-stop drinking are a recipe for a Stateside hit, as the infamous Gallaghers prepare to be reincarnated in Chicago.

Tom Rosenthal interview

Tom Rosenthal talks about his latest stage role in Chicken Soup With Barley and how he enjoys 'taking the p***' out of his Dad for his stand-up routine.

This episode is so funny that even Stephen Merchant's animated alter ego has to leave his seat for a moment to compose himself. The stupidity
once again hinges on Karl Pilkington's hypochondria and the pearls of wisdom he learned from a 'professional leg rubber'.

There are two guest hosts for tonight's show and they're not comics - they're MasterChef mavens Gregg Wallace and John Torode. How they'll fare on laughs is anyone's guess. Happily, the reliably brilliant Richard Herring, who last turned up on HIGNFY sporting a Hitler moustache and
is a panellist again tonight, should do well in that department.