Stephen Mangan

Often in this show a panellist manages, through artful stumbling, to make everyone else think that a true story is made-up nonsense. Much harder is to pick up a card and read a fabrication you've never seen before, then convince the assembled wits it happened. There's a solid-gold example of the latter tonight, though to say who pulls it off would of course spoil the point. Aside from that, it's a slow starter, but takes off when David Mitchell cross-examines Kevin Bridges over a horse the latter supposedly bought by mistake in Bulgaria. Also taking part, Prof Brian Cox, a giggly Keeley Hawes and Stephen Mangan.

It's a quite funny idea - a spoof documentary with Stephen Mangan and Rhys Thomas as a pair of hapless British buddies walking to the north pole, carbon neutrally, to save the planet (and my lawn?). It's marginally more entertaining than watching Ben Fogle and the rowing dude doing this kind of thing for real. I like the rival team, a pair of gay Norwegians who split up as lovers but remain together as a polar exploring team, somewhere around 85 degrees north. And the shooting of a polar bear is fun. But there's too much filling between the laughs - it's really a sketch idea, dragged out to movie length.

Brian Tongue and Mark Bark-Jones, concerned about global warning and hoping to get a bit of Bono and Bob Geldof-style sainthood along the way, are making the world's first carbon neutral, vegetarian, organic expedition to the north pole. Stephen Mangan plays Bark-Jones as the ultimate eco bore, superior, self-pitying and ultimately likable; while Rhys Thomas's carefree Brian Tongue appears to be going along for the ride. The irreverent, comic tone is judged well - until the sentimental ending goes and ruins it all. Helen Baxendale makes a cameo as the sympathetic film-maker following the pair.

Stephen Mangan on life after Green Wing

The star of the cult comedy on working with True Blood star, Alexander Skarsgård, his quiet personal life and why he doesn't regret those Barclaycard ads.

Video: Polar bears in sub-zero comedy

Helen Baxendale and Stephen Mangan star in the low budget comedy, 'Beyond The Pole'. The film was shot in -30 degrees centigrade in northern Greenland and a rifle had to be kept on set to fend off polar bears.

'Beyond The Pole' is showing at the ICA from Friday until February 28, and at selected independent cinemas nationwide from March.

Helen Baxendale on filming Beyond the Pole

The Friends and Cold Feet actress has produced a film about a duo, starring Stephen Mangan, on mission to the North Pole.

Our grey world does not exist except in the imagination of the blue people. A startling statement, perhaps, but to those who heard the first two instalments of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran's My Blue Heaven trilogy the concept should be familiar. To all others, welcome to the Douglas Adams-esque world of Graham Slater (Stephen Mangan), who is employed by his childhood imaginary friend, Mr Fluffy, a blue creature now known as Lapis Lazuli. He has to rid his friend's dimension of poisonous cash from the toxic debts that caused the global recession. Keeping up? Good, because this is brilliant stuff, full of neat wordplay and wonderful characters: Graham's indomitable mother (Phyllida Law) and her improbable stories; the child-like Mr Fluffy; and the steely, honey-voiced tax officer. Top marks (and Gran, too).

At its best, Would I Lie to You? (or, endearingly, WILTY for short) has a clever way of making us genuinely torn about whether the tales the panellists tell are bizarre truths or rank fibs. Increasingly, guests use the devious double bluff - stumbling over their story or adding details that sound absurd, when it really happened. I won't say who tries that ruse tonight as it would spoil the fun, but I will say that for some reason the tall stories are a bit more guessable than usual. No matter, the show is still enjoyable, with stand-up comedian Reginald D Hunter riffing nicely on the idea that the "D" in his name stands for "Delicious", while Ken Livingstone talks authoritatively about a frog he claims to have bred that had a "prehensile", ie grabby, part of its body that you really wouldn't expect to be grabby. The normally unstoppable David Mitchell is oddly subdued, until a contretemps with Lee Mack about throwing (or possibly not) a sausage roll off Blackpool Tower gets him riled. But did Mitchell have a bell he used to ring as a child when he wanted something? And was Stephen Mangan in a prog-rock band with mystery guest Gordon, or is he in fact Mitchell's local pet-shop owner?

There are a lot of food-based fibs in tonight's breezy show. There's Fern Britton's tea, Lee Mack with his sausage rolls, Stephen Mangan talking about a Mini-Cooper full of sweets and American stand-up Reginald D Hunter, who claims that the D in his name stands for 'Delicious'. Personally, I think it's more likely to stand for 'Deadpan' - this guy's poker face is better than Lady Gaga's.

Also on tonight's show, Ken Livingstone says the word "anus" a lot. Honestly. Host Rob Brydon and team captain David Mitchell look suitably shocked.

Though it's a comedy, so strong and empathetic are its performances that Free Agents actually feels more like a comedy-drama in the vein of Cold Feet - which is no bad thing. This is a series set in the world of talent agents: a profession which can yield some examples of terrible human vileness (see Anthony Head's agency boss Stephen), but also surprising vulnerability. Green Wing's Stephen Mangan excels as weepy, recently divorced agent Alex. As we join him, he's trying to talk up his one-night stand with co-worker Helen (Sharon Horgan).