Tim Vine

Harry Hill & Omid Djalili for Slapstick festival

Barry Cryer, Omid Djalili, The Goodies, Harry Hill, Terry Jones, Phill Jupitus, Paul McGann, Lucy Porter and Tim Vine will be among the celebrities who will be visiting Bristol between 24 and 26 January.

Not Going Out provided the requisite amount of laughter to justify its place on the Christmas schedules. In fact I would go as far as to say that Lee Mack's comedy is currently the best mainstream sitcom airing on any terrestrial channel.

By now I think you know exactly what to expect from Not Going Out and if you don't like the kind of wisecracking humour employed by Mack and company then it's probably best to skip the show. While I concede that its loss some of its charm since the departure of Tim Vine, Not Going Out still delivers laughs on a consistent basis. Unlike some other sitcoms that are joke-heavy, Not Going Out features three likeable lead performers all of whom are great at delivering their lines at a suitable pace.

I personally felt that Not Going Out was perfectly placed on the schedules, late on Christmas Eve, so people could enjoy it while tucking into the first drinks of the festive season. Ultimately I laughed all of the way through Not Going Out and sometimes that's all you need from a Christmas Comedy Special.

John Bishop's Christmas Show tops ratings with 4.7m

The BBC One show, featuring the likes of Nina Conti and Tim Vine, entertained 4.75 million (19.9%) at 9pm.

Tim Vine interview

Puntastic stand-up Tim Vine, 46, rattles through some one-liners as he looks back over a 20-year career.

The Tim Vine joke vault

We pick our favourite jokes and one-liners by the punniest comedian in the land, Tim Vine.

Amnesty Secret Comedy Podcast episode 9

Host Alan Davies chats to Tim Vine about being middle children and Keith Farnan talks about the death penalty. Plus Chris Martin plays jokes on animals, Jess Fostekew on the nation's finest B&Bs and Mike Wozniak talks science-based cat facts.

In BBC1's Friday-night run of Would I Lie to You?, Have I Got News for You and Not Going Out, it's the sitcom that is starting to feel like the weak link. But Lee Mack's old-school set-up-gag, set-up-gag rhythms still attract audiences of well over three million every week, even if some of us still miss Tim Vine. This week, it's once again Katy Wix's Daisy who provides the funniest scene, as she helps Lee practise his magic show before a kids' party, but takes things a bit literally, warning him, "You shouldn't mess around when dealing with the occult."

Interview: Stewart Francis - Part #2

Today Francis discusses his contemporaries - namely Tim Vine, Milton Jones and Jimmy Carr - finding his comedy rhythm, the Lumberjacks re-union tour with pals Craig Campbell and Glenn Wool and a possible chat show in the works.