Simon Day

The scourging of the Murdock empire is a goldmine of new material for comedians. The biggest audience guffaw in this returning series comes when interviewer Rhys Thomas asks his guest - fellow comedian Simon Day - if there really isn't anything that he wouldn't do for money. Day, fast as a whip, comes back with "Well, I wouldn't hack into people's phones." It's no secret that I love this series: it's akin to the empathetic questioning techniques of Kirsty Young or Victoria Derbyshire being channelled through Alexei Sayle or Steve Coogan - lots of insight, but even more laughs. Rhys does not push Day too closely on his addictive personality - something that the comic has been very open about in his recent autobiography - but we do get to hear about his spell in a borstal, which he refers to as being like "a violent boarding school".

Video: Simon Day talks about getting his big break

Simon Day say his fortunes changed when he won a stand-up comedy competition and was spotted by comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

Simon Day: Kicked out of the nest

When Simon Day was a teenager, he fell between the gaps of his parents' failing marriage, unwelcome at both their new homes, and had to rely on his friends instead.

Interview: Simon Day, comedian

Comedian Simon Day has always struggled with addictions, and even a spell in Borstal didn't straighten him out. But finding his wife and starting a family has helped him in his recovery.

Simon Day: Vic Reeves helped me get my big break

The Fast Show's Simon Day talks to Metro about breaking into comedy, the complexities of drug addiction and why a thousand Scousers once told him to 'f*** off'.

The Simon Day Show, in the same slot as Arthur Smith's Balahm Bash but on Thursdays, is a far stranger and, thus, more exhilarating listen. It's badly titled, really: you expect Day to do straight stand-up, but he never appears as himself. Instead, every week, he's a different character (Dave Angel, Tommy Cockles), come to perform at a small regional theatre, the Mallard. (Why isn't it called Live at the Mallard?) Anyway, the programme cuts between the act's performance and other imagined characters in the audience or behind the scenes. What a mish-mash! Still, as it's Simon Day, you don't have to wait long for moments so odd and brilliant that you forgive the muddled concept. Last week, Tommy Cockles got into a riff about dinosaurs that included the line, "Watch out, it's a T Rex - hide the Dundee cake!" That really tickled me.

This brand new sketch show sees The Fast Show and Down The Line star Simon Day perform as some of his best known creations at The Mallard, a small provincial theatre with not that much room in it. If you want an idea on sort of place The Mallard is, it's best put by the woman in charge of the box office admitting to adding the phrase "Must see" to acts because the tickets are not shifting.

This week, Day starred as his Yorkshire poet persona Geoffrey Allerton, reading some of his poems and extracts from his memoir Marking Time. Day/Allerton's poetry is excellent, making humorous comments on inner city life and going to art-house movies.

His sombre childhood memories were even funnier, covering the bad relationship Allerton had with his father. He mentions that his father, "threw a jar of Marmite at me," and that he showed him a picture of a naked woman, or as Day/Allerton puts it, the, "lady with the lower beard."

The show is not just about Day and his character, but also of the regular staff and visitors of The Mallard. There is surly Rastafarian technician Goose (Felix Dexter) who gets annoyed about being given jobs outside of his remit, the Leeds-born boss Ron Bone (Simon Greenall) who mocks Allerton's supposedly posh background, and there are the two posh mothers (Arabella Weir and Catherine Shepherd) talking about the problems of employing a "frog" as a nanny.

This has all the marks of becoming a really good series. Future episodes will see Day performing as reformed convict Tony Beckton and his Fast Show classic Tommy Cockles.

Radio review: The Simon Day Show

New comedy set in a provincial theatre features the comedian in character- some old favourites, some new.

New situation comedy. And it's one worth catching. Written by and starring Simon Day, its six episodes feature him as different people who turn up to perform at a small theatre (so small there's a real person taking telephone bookings). The first one Day gives us is Yorkshire poet Geoffrey Allerton, whose observations on his own life ("My dad had big hands, like paddles...") bear more than a passing resemblance to one or two voices often heard on the airwaves. Catherine Shepherd, Arabella Weir and Felix Dexter are among the shining support cast.