Stephen Mangan

Stephen Mangan consigns Sheen's Tony Blair to history

Michael Sheen's decision to turn down The Hunt for Tony Blair gives Stephen Mangan the chance to outshine him.

Ruth Jones dips her toe into chat, something she's done before at Christmas and Easter. Let's hope it doesn't become more than a seasonal sideline: this show is 40 minutes of pleasing fluff, but I'd swap it for four minutes of her writing or acting.

First onto the cheery, retro sofa is Sarah Millican, who's a trusted guest because she's inoffensive without being bland. She gets away with discussing her attraction to gorillas while still seeming cuddly and safe. Animal-based innuendo becomes a theme thanks to Jonathan Ross, who's less cuddly but as always has a lot of wit behind the smut. Episodes star Stephen Mangan arrives last, offering a random but funny anecdote about an Israeli immigration official.

It all feels like an unfinished pilot, or a dream about a 1970s chat show with modern guests.

The third of Ruth Jones's seasonal chatshows offers up the unusual opportunity of seeing Jonathan Ross in the role of interviewee. Anyone hoping for a grilling on Sachsgate and extravagant pay packets is likely to be disappointed by Jones's puffball questions but Ross is an engaging guest and the patter between him, Green Wing's Stephen Mangan and stand-up Sarah Millican makes for pleasant, undemanding viewing.

Following on from the success of her Christmas Cracker and Easter Treat, the ebullient actress Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey) returns for another one-off chat show. It promises to be a jovial affair, with Jonathan Ross, Geordie comic Sarah Millican and the actor Stephen Mangan all joining her on the sofa, as well as music from an irrepressible Irish rockabilly star called Imelda May.

Comic Strip returns with Tony Blair on the run

The Hunt for Tony Blair premieres in Edinburgh, with Stephen Mangan as Blair and Jennifer Saunders as Lady Thatcher.

Eco-warriors are ripe for satire, and this zany mockumentary makes a decent fist of sending them up. Stephen Mangan and Rhys Thomas play two friends who want to help to save the world by becoming the first carbon-neutral, organic vegetarians to reach the Pole. It's funny in places but lacks direction.

In a comedy based on Douglas Adams's novels, Stephen Mangan stars as detective Dirk Gently, whose investigative technique is based on "an unswerving belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things". Happily, the switchback script here, by Howard Overman (Misfits), has a kind of pointedly whimsical quality that's pure Adams. Although there are moments when Mangan's energy overwhelms the rest of the cast, you suspect Gently's creator would approve.

Meddling with the novels of such a geek luminary as Douglas Adams is a precarious business, so it's no surprise that this reworking of his Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - first shown on BBC4 last December - had ardent fans up in arms over the deviation from its source novel. But a series has been commissioned, so all their favourite bits of the books have a chance to make it to the screen. For the rest of us there is enough to appreciate in a plot that expands from a case of a missing cat to some surreal flights of fancy. Stephen Mangan is great as the chaotic, evasive Gently, while Darren Boyd does a great line in bewilderment as an unwitting sidekick.

Stephen Mangan's not-great-but-better-than-expected turn as Douglas Adams's holistic detective actually stands up to a second viewing, so even if you watched it on BBC4, you may be surprised to find you like it more this time around.

Fans of Douglas Adams were unimpressed with this reworking of his Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency when it aired on BBC Four last year - they felt it deviated too far from Adams's original novel. Tonight, it gets its first terrestrial airing with the detective (Stephen Mangan) examining a case that links a missing cat with an exploding warehouse.