Tessa Gibbs

Joanna Lumley interview: Ab Fab will steal Christmas

Joanna Lumley talks about the boozy return of Patsy and Edina in Absolutely Fabulous this Christmas.

This highly feted stand-up comedy performance by Eddie Izzard was recorded in San Francisco in 1999 (when he habitually wore more dresses and make-up than he does now). He offers his own distinctive observations on everything from the history of Western culture to puberty and royal genetics.

Each instalment of this comedy opens like an episode of Sex And The City. But the chirpy voice-over and shots of New York City only book end a flashback to entirely less glamorous Reading in 1997, where the younger Simon (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) inadvertently broadcasts his desire for his very own Posh Spice doll over the school tannoy system. Although this yearning places us squarely in the late Nineties, Beautiful People feels as if it is floating somewhere before that time; perhaps because of references to TV shows such as Knots Landing, which finished in 1993.

Lanky comedian Russell Brand performs a stand-up show which was filmed in London in 2006. His quirky and foul-mouthed observational comedy isn't always successful, but it's engaging enough to stop you spending the entire programme thinking how satisfying it would be if you could give his alarming bush of hair a good run through with a comb.