Jack Dee's HelpDesk

Years of lugubrious wit are turning Jack Dee's face as saggy as the late Clement Freud's. Tonight's dosage of self-indulgent gripes from an invited audience won't help any. He's joined by Jeremy Hardy, Katherine Ryan, Larry Lamb and Andi Osho to field "first world complaints" about baby Facebook updates, emptying bins when husbands are away and inquiries about where best to shield an iPhone from the sun ("Britain," offers Hardy).

It's debatable as to whether the world is quite in the mood for a light-hearted take on the presidential inauguration of Donald J Trump. But sometimes, all you can do is laugh. Jack Dee - whose mordant wit should serve the context well - will be joined by Gabby Logan and Romesh Ranganathan to answer questions, attempt to assuage audience concerns and essentially join the rest of us in hoping for the best.

Review: Jack Dee's Inauguration HelpDesk

With only a few hours before Donald Trump becomes the most powerful man in the world, now is a good time to ask questions about the future president - and who is better qualified to deal with it than four comedians and a sports presenter?

Having consumed hours of "debate" programmes which involved neither side contesting each other, bewildered viewers rushed to Jack Dee's Referendum HelpDesk for some much-needed light relief, and guidance.

First, was an issue that many of us have failed to think about: cafe service. A middle-aged lady told Dee and his panel, including the rampantly funny Romesh Ranganathan, that her main reason for voting "Remain" was that upon returning to the UK from abroad she looks forward to buying a coffee: "I really like the service you get in coffee shops."

When the audience stopped laughing 10 minutes later, she revealed she was in dispute with her husband over the referendum. He must have been a tea drinker. So (shockingly), we could face a critical shortage of competent foreign-sounding baristas. Now I'm confused.

Other perplexing issues were raised as we were encouraged to "make a suitably ill-informed decision". That's actually a given. Someone was worried about losing the Queen's head off the currency. We're voting about a republic now? Hang on. Dee, however, was adamant: "I want David Bowie on our money."

Others was quite concerned about food. Aren't we always? According to one, "wet mozzarella" might disappear in the event of Brexit, along with "Spanish omelettes you make yourself" and Italian-style gesticulation. I'm definitely out now. By far the funniest contribution came from one gentleman who suggested: "Shall we just leave to see what happens?" Or is that the equivalent of, "will the last person to leave please turn off the lights?".

Review: Jack Dee's Referendum Helpdesk, BBC2

Nobody seems to have told the person that did the opening credits for this comedy version of Question Time that it is about the EU. Instead subject titles such as "relationships" and "money"Romesh Ranganathan rolled past as if our host, serial cynic Jack Dee, was any old agony aunt.

TV review: Jack Dee's Election Help Desk, BBC2

There are a lot of election comedies coming along at the moment. There's the aforementioned Last Leg, the topical Newzoids and Ballot Monkeys from the writers of Outnumbered. It will be interesting to see which one wins the satire race. At the moment Help Desk gets my vote. But then I haven't seen the others yet.

It's hard confidently to predict the exact contents of this show, as it will clearly depend on whatever stealth tax-raising, Ukip-defecting, debate-dodging, sandwich-slobbering, gaffe-strewn nonsense is top of the election agenda on the day in question. But as this panel show is overseen by Jack Dee, we can probably safely assume that its intent will be satirical, its tone lugubrious and its emphasis bleakly comic. Even if you're fed up with all the squabbling by now, this could still be worth a look.