Stephen Fry

Pull a cracker for a festive QI with Phill Jupitus, Alan Davies, Danny Baker and RT's Sarah Millican. They are a ribald bunch, leading ringmaster Stephen Fry, resplendent in a luxuriant Santa outfit, to wail: "We have started our family Christmas show just as I'd hoped we would."

Everyone is on fine form and there are some good gags, including one from Fry about Freudians and a light bulb. And we learn why it is always Christmas in Millican's spare bedroom.

The derivation of advertising jingles is just one of the 'quite interesting' facts relayed by jovial host Stephen Fry, today in Father Christmas costume for the QI festive special. Other topics include Twelfth Night - not necessarily on January 6, according to Alan Davies's calculations - and jesus lizards. It's an enjoyable episode, with fun comic diversions including a rant about 'shiny children' that Phill Jupitus cannily uses to deflect from Fry's rather awkward question to Sarah Millican on the subject of kids. Millican may be a popular stand-up, but she's given little chance to shine here, mostly laughing very loudly at the chaps' banter. Danny Baker, meanwhile, gets to show off his obscure knowledge. It's entertaining, but not as much as, say, the 2010 Christmas special, where guest Daniel Radcliffe was used to better effect.

Christmas 2012: the QI Christmas quiz

Time for the seasonal quiz from the brains behind QI, the popular BBC1 show featuring Stephen Fry and Alan Davies.

With previous Christmas editions of this quiz focusing on esoteric topics such as "Empire" and "Hocus Pocus", tonight's theme of "Jingle Bells" chimes (pun intended) with the season and sounds altogether merrier. Host Stephen Fry is joined for the ninth yuletide episode by regular panellist Alan Davies and guests Geordie comedian Sarah Millican, broadcaster Phill Jupitus and radio presenter Danny Baker.

Stephen Fry & Miranda Hart join life insurer petition

Celebrities back call after Friends Life rejects life and critical illness payout for cancer suffer Nic Hughes.

The seasonal return of the Little Crackers series, which features comedy shorts based on the autobiographical recollections of various actors and comedians. Previous participants have included Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, Jack Whitehall and Sheridan Smith. This latest series begins with Joanna Lumley's Baby, Be Blonde, in which the 19-year-old Jo (Ottilie Mackintosh) is a struggling model who gets a break when she buys a blonde wig. "It didn't, but it made me feel that I had changed the course of my life," says Lumley in the behind-the-scenes film which follows the short. Also starring this week in later episodes are Rebecca Front and Caroline Quentin.

Stephen Fry praised for return to West End stage

Stephen Fry has made his official return to the West End stage as Malvolio in an all-male production of William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night.

Man in court over theft of Stephen Fry's football scarf

A man has been charged in relation to the disappearance of Stephen Fry's Norwich City scarf from a Peterborough charity shop.

You can't go wrong with writer, tweeter and boulevardier Stephen Fry, he's the perfect chat show guest: witty, charming and impossible to faze. He has something to celebrate, too, a triumphant return to the theatre after that dark time in 1995 when, crippled by stage fright, he fled Simon Gray's West End production of Cell Mates. Fry is currently starring as Malvolio, opposite Mark Rylance, in the Globe theatre's production of Twelfth Night.

Sharing the limelight on the Ross couch tonight is dainty songstress Taylor Swift, who will doubtless be singing her new single, Begin Again, and who might even be persuaded to talk about her boyfriend Conor Kennedy of the US political clan.