The Now Show

The Now Show Preview - A Blessed Tribute

Guests on tonight's Now Show include Marcus Brigstocke, Andi Osho, Laura Shavin and Mitch Benn. In fact, here's a preview of Mitch right now with his affectionate tribute to Brian Blessed, who's been in the news this week.

The Now Show asks: what would you like to leak?

Each week The Now Show asks their audience a question, and read out the funniest and sometimes the most bizarre answers at the end of the show.

Notes from The Now Show: Frosty Leaks

Here's producer Julia McKenzie with this week's notes from The Now Show ideas meeting.

The Now Show Preview - Eurozone Eurovision

Hugh's voice has recovered and Jon Culshaw is a guest on tonight's Now Show, which promises to be a corker. Just listen to this preview clip!

Notes from The Now Show: Tackling the Irish Bailout

Following last week's sudden bout of voicelessness, here's a reassuring message from Hugh Dennis: "Back on the show this week and able to speak, with part of me wishing I couldn't as we battle to extract the comedy value from the Irish debt crisis."

The Now Show Returns - Preview

A few hours before the recording we took a call from Hugh Dennis who was just about able to croak out the alarming message that he'd lost his voice and BBC doctors had signed him off work!

Hurray! I've really gone off The News Quiz (too blue for me and too self-satisfied for its own good) so welcome back Steve Punt, Hugh Dennis, Mitch Benn, Jon Holmes and Laura Shavin with their much wittier reflection of the week. There have been Friday nights in past series where I could have hugged them for being so astute and so funny about government goings on. Even with Cameron and Clegg and their coalition comrades being much harder to mimic than Brown and Blair, Darling, Prescott et al, I'm still confident my thoughts will be echoed in the team's jokes.

This Week on The Now Show: The Now Show turns 32

The Now Show is back back back! After Sandi and her News Quiz team go and lie down in a darkened room until they are next required. We're on to series 32 of The Now Show, amazingly, and Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis still look as fresh and gamine as years at the comedy coal face will allow.

On Wednesday's The Vote Now Show I was expecting Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis to take aim at the barrel and start blasting. But all we got was a couple of spoof mic gaffes, such as Churchill doing his "fight them on the beaches" speech then saying, "it's bollocks, but they love it". The rest felt stale only hours after the Mic Moment.

Best value was Kate Adie on past elections, when slightly embarrassing events were hardly reported. She recalled going around with Keith Joseph, from whom people visibly flinched. He was shunted into a branch of Woolworth's, scattering scared shoppers, and left by himself at the tills. "What've you got?" the check-out girl asked, waiting for him to pay. "We have tremendous plans for education," he informed her.

His Conservative descendants have plans for the BBC. It's their fish in a barrel. So if I might reiterate my recent plea: if you value the Beeb, don't vote Tory. Shoot them in the foot instead.

The Vote Now Show, the daily dose of The Now Show on Radio 4, has improved since the beginning of the election campaign. I like the mini-sketches by contributors. On Wednesday, John Finnemore offered some lovely gags in his "manifestos for smaller parties" skit. The jokes got groanier and groanier until we got to the party that wanted "improved facilities for overweight train-spotters". "They're standing on a broad platform." No? Suit yourselves.