Live At The Apollo

Why stand-up comedians have taken over TV

With a new series of Live at the Apollo starting this evening, Chris Harvey analyses the growing popularity - and ubiquity - of TV comedians.

The Apollo will always have a special significance for stand-up John Bishop. This gig last year ­catapulted him into the major league. Back in that ­spotlight for a new series, his routine is a confessional about that night and the nerves he suffered as he faced the biggest audience of his less-than glorious career.

A comedy routine about the job of comedy? Bishop's ­raconteurish style isn't to ­everybody's taste. He's not a gag machine like Jimmy Carr and his material is so personal you couldn't even describe it as observational either. He's more like that bloke in the pub who has a way of taking the ordinary events of an average day and shining them until they gleam.

Last year's act was all about how his new car had broken down - and he still looks like an ex-footballer who's got lost on his way to the Match Of The Day studio.

The host is Sean Lock who's also not above mining his family life for material. "My wife doesn't like me treating the kids like hecklers," he reveals.

The stand-up show has reached its sixth series and kicks off with some trusty names. Mock the Week regular Sean Lock is the host and dishes out gags about the perils of people wanting to try on your glasses and - that old topic that just about anyone can relate to - having children. He introduces Liverpudlian John Bishop, whose own comedy series was shown on BBC One in the summer. Over the following five episodes we can expect to see Dara O Briain, Lenny Henry, Jon Richardson and Shappi Khorsandi among those taking the stage.

The laughometer gets its highest reading from host Michael McIntyre - he may be considered safe and orthodox, but his slickly engineered routines about HD-ready TVs, the awfulness of Argos and searching for a pen are a delight. Some may find his exaggerated theatrics a little grating, but it's hard to fault the material.

Some of these half hours of live stand-up comedy are bound to be better than others, but this is one of the very best. It begins with a routine by the manic, semi-hinged Welshman Rhod Gilbert. The last time he was at the Apollo he had apoplexy on stage describing the unnecessary complications of buying a duvet. Fortunately, he hasn't calmed down one iota, and tonight he begins by mocking café life in rain-soaked Cardiff ("people have to throw lifebuoys to their bread rolls") before unleashing a tidal wave of frustration at the complexities of washing machines. He is followed by John Bishop, who could scarcely be more different. Deadpan, bewildered and resigned, he describes the difficulty of bringing up teenage boys. It's a brilliant half hour.

The latter (Rob Brydon) will have had the consolation of knowing that on Friday's Live at the Apollo he had triumphed. His account of a home delivery in which his wife, crouched "like a mammal", had produced a baby head from her nether region and thus briefly resembled a playing card, was the definitive childbirth routine.

Bafta-nominated comedy-fest, Live At The Apollo, returns for a fifth series and it opens with a bang. Northern funny man Jason Manford hosts with special guest, 2009's comedy sensation, Michael McIntyre.

McIntyre's most recent telly series Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow pulled in a huge five million viewers a night and it's easy to see why. He has an astonishing talent for turning the humdrum into the hilarious, with a laser-sharp eye for everyday silliness.

There aren't many people, even comedians, who could have you weeping with laughter over hoovering techniques, the charade of ordering restaurant wine or the contents of your spice rack. And you'll never watch a snooker game in quite the same way again. It's an added plus, in this cynical day and age, that his humour is also entirely humane.

Manford copes gamely with his man-of-the-moment guest and provides plenty of laughs to match.

My one complaint - what possessed the people in suits to cut the show to a mere half hour? Still, well worth watching. Even if you haven't had a rubbish week, it'll cheer you up no end.

Michael McIntyre, eh? He does a lot of observing, doesn't he? And he's quite pleased with himself, isn't he? You know when you go to France and see posters for stand-up comedy and they look like clowns? That's what his pictures look like. He exudes over-the-top ludicrousness. So much so, some people might find it irksome. Still, he's very popular. Partly because he's benefited from the huge ratings of Live At The Apollo, which gives stand-ups longer to build routines rather than spit out one-liners in bearpits like Mock The Week. Anyhow, the reason to watch this is host Jason Manford, one of our favourite comics, a lovely, sensible man when you meet him, who has exceptional taste. He's going to give up stand-up to start writing soon, so catch him while you can.

By his own admission, Keith Barret is not a natural performer and his interactions with the audience here combine crashing naivety with staggering social ineptitude. Yet this routine, "an uplifting chat about marriage" - as delivered by Rob Brydon - is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Brydon first sketched Barret in the wonderful Marion and Geoff monologues and, in this show from 2005, he's drawn a fully three-dimensional character. Sandwiched between two routines from host Jack Dee, Brydon is outstanding.

It's that time of the year, when comedians flock to Edinburgh to show off their new gags, while we at home must be content with tried and tested repeats. Happily, there's a sterling line-up on Dave, beginning with the most recent series of Live at the Apollo. Funnyman of the moment Michael McIntyre hosts tonight, gleefully extracting comic gold out of broken-down buses, limp handshakes and the oft-neglected joys of skipping.