Victoria Coren Mitchell

Presented by the charming Victoria Coren Mitchell, this is an odd one: part interview, part vehicular rumination. The interviewee is asked to view their life through their cars, from their parents' to their current motor. Obviously a device, but it's a patchy one: the first episode, with chatty, confiding Dawn French, worked well, but Olivia Colman, this week, was pricklier. Coren Mitchell asked a couple too many yes/no questions, to which Colman often gave a one-word answer. In both shows I enjoyed it when the conversation expanded a little. Coren Mitchell made a great point about women feeling both safe and adventurous in a car. More of that, please!

Of all the formats BBC radio employs to ensure that you're never more than half an hour away from hearing the same two-dozen comics and presenters chatting companionably with each other, Women Talking About Cars is one of the easiest to forgive. In this episode presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell takes Olivia Colman through all the cars she has owned or driven in her life. These include her early Morris Minor, which she named Moomin. She claims to have fixed the rotor arm of said vehicle with nail varnish, which can't be in the manuals. What's valuable is the light shed on aspects of her life that have nothing to do with cars, such as the fact that even Colman, seemingly one of the most in-demand actors in the UK, can expect to be out of work for half of the year.

Having been in "I hate all Radio 4 comedy" mode for quite some time, I found myself doing actual, real-life guffaws - more than one! - at Heresy on Wednesday evening. It's quite a while since I've done this listening between 6.30 and 7pm, I must say.

There's not much at all to Heresy - it's just a series of received opinions unpicked by witty people in front of a live audience - but, somehow, this week's episode really worked. This was a lot to do with host Victoria Coren Mitchell, who delivers her tinder-dry lines with just the right amount of nonchalance. She's sharp without being nasty or egomaniacal: at certain points in this episode, she formed a sort of comedy alliance with guest Katy Brand, also on great form. Lloyd Langford, a standup, was excellent, and Grayson Perry as hilarious as ever. The person who made me laugh the most, however, was a member of the audience during a discussion about whether anyone would want to own a picture painted by Hitler. I'm not going to spoil his deadpan punchline, but, listeners, I laughed. I honestly did.

Next thing, I'll start liking Radio 2 documentaries... Or maybe not. I do find them irritating. They have great content, but the style, editing and scripts drive me doolally. Too often they come across as documentaries for simpletons, and Radio 2 listeners aren't stupid.

Toksvig hasn't listened to News Quiz since leaving it

Sandi Toksvig has admitted she hasn't listened to The News Quiz since Miles Jupp took over.

Pictures: David Mitchell cradles two-month-old daughter

Peep Show's David Mitchell cradles two-month-old daughter Barbara as he enjoys an al fresco lunch with wife Victoria Coren.

Victoria Coren Mitchell meets the QI Elves

Who are the QI Elves? They're in the great pantheon of TV characters you hear about, but never see - like the wives of Arthur Daley, Norm Peterson and Niles Crane. As a long-time QI fan, whenever these enigmatic "Elves" were referred to on the programme, I would ask (like Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, watching the cloaked horse-riders on the horizon): "Who are those guys?" That's why I'm so excited that the Elves have broken cover, bringing a team to compete in Only Connect's first series for BBC Two.

Radio Times review

A nicely mellow and civilised gathering in the QI studio this week. Whether because there are two female guests (Sue Perkins and Victoria Coren Mitchell) or because the male one is that charming gentleman of the cloth Rev Richard Coles, it all feels pleasantly collegiate and polite, with no trumping-each-other's-gags.

Coles has almost as many quite interesting titbits of knowledge to chip in as the host (if a clergyman goes to a black-tie do, he can't have a stripe down his trousers, apparently...), but it's Coren Mitchell who makes us long to know more when she teases Fry about a poker game they once played - with Martin Amis and Ricky Gervais. Quite a night.

David Mitchell attacks David Starkey in new series

The new series of That Mitchell and Webb Sound lambasts the TV historian six months after he was rude to Mitchell's wife Victoria Coren on Question Time.