Veronica Lee

Review: Ardal O'Hanlon tour

Laid-back anecdotal humour from the likeable Irishman.

Corporate gigs: Which comedians take the funny money?

Many comics pay their way with corporate gigs, says Veronica Lee. But they're not for everyone...

Bridget Christie interview

"I was standing in a bookshop when I realised that this was a show I just had to do".

Phoebe Waller-Bridge on her Fringe First winner Fleabag (Link expired)

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's sex-obsessed character in her Fringe First winner Fleabag is no Bridget Jones, writes Veronica Lee.

Rubberbandits, Soho Theatre

Irish hip-hop spoofsters give an energetic performance.

Review: Family Tree, BBC Two

I wish I could say this opener was laugh-out-loud funny, but I can't.

Review: Count Arthur Strong, BBC Two

Steve Delaney and Graham Linehan neatly set up the story, although the thing I loved about the radio show - Count Arthur's pomposity and irritation with life, in which an hilarious mix of malapropisms, Spoonerisms and downright idiocy would form a crescendo of confusion on his part - was noticeably absent here.

Review: Quick Cuts, BBC Four

Poor debut for a hairdressing salon-based sitcom.

Rebecca Front stars in Up the Women, written by Jessica Hynes, who co-penned the rather brilliant Spaced (1999-2001) but who, strangely, has never received the same acclaim as her co-writer Simon Pegg.

Up the Women is traditional in its format - it's set mostly in one room, in this instance a village hall where the Bunbury Intricate Crafts Circle meet. It's 1910, and one of BICC's members, Margaret (Hynes) has been seduced by Suffragettism while on a day trip to London. The group's self-appointed bossy-boots leader Helen (Front), meanwhile, is having none of it when Margaret meekly suggests the group might support women's emancipation - "Women should not have the vote. We are simple, emotional creatures."

Margaret is a brainy woman who has long since accepted that women must always defer to men, even those markedly less intelligent, and a good running gag involved her explaining electricity to the overbearing caretaker (Adrian Scarborough), who was struggling to fit a new-fangled lightbulb.

The characters - particularly Vicki Pepperdine's toothy spinster - are drawn in broad strokes, and occasionally the humour (peonies being misheard for penis, for instance) is groaningly obvious. But there are some neat lines too, and superb acting from a fantastic cast who look like they're enjoying themselves, including Judy Parfitt doing a nice turn as Helen's decidedly naughty mother, Myrtle, sexually liberated long before the term was invented by the Pankhursts' spiritual daughters. Worth staying with.

Psychobitches, Sky Arts/ Up the Women, BBC One

Two new comedies with women front and centre.