Dave's One Night Stand

Andrew Maxwell interview

Comic Andrew Maxwell talks to Metro about doing stand-up gigs in prison, travelling round the US with conspiracy theorists, and how being the class clown inspired his choice of career.

Milton Jones interview

Not a lot of people have the ability to constantly make people laugh, and even fewer can do it by uttering a single line. Milton Jones though has that gift - and this week he's showing off his talents at a special gig in his hometown for Dave's One Night Stand.

Pub Landlord Al Murray is your host in the first of a new series of the stand-up show, and after a whirlwind bus-top tour of London - "Covent Garden! Not a single nun, not a single flower, a complete lie" - he takes to the stage in Shepherd's Bush, celebrating the Jubilee, Pippa Middleton's rear and taking the mickey out of the poor souls in the front row. Also on stage: Richard Herring deconstructs children's hand signals, while Andy Zaltzman transcribes his involvement in his child's birth.

The fourth series of this reliably funny stand-up comedy show opens with a bang tonight, as Al Murray's Pub Landlord embarks on an open-top tour of the capital. "The whole world looks to London," he says proudly, "and then sends its slack-jawed teenagers to chain-smoke and shoplift in the Trocadero." The tone set, Murray proceeds to give a fine, typically provocative performance in front of a paying crowd at the Shepherds Bush Empire before introducing support performances from Richard Herring and Andy Zaltzman.

Dave's One Night Stand award winner is announced!

After many hours spent counting all of the thousands of votes that came in over the last two months we are very excited to announce that the winner of the first Dave's One Night Stand Award is... (drum roll please)...

Judging by the line-ups for the third series of this programme, I think it's safe to say that Dave are running low on suitable locations to film. The first episode featured Ardal O'Hanlon performing in Dublin, a city which the programme's already covered in the last series when Jason Byrne performed there. Later in the series, Stephen K Amos is performing in London, Jack Whitehall's location in the first series. And Reginald D Hunter is performing in Edinburgh, which, as far as I know, isn't where he lives currently. It's certainly not his hometown, although since that would mean filming in America you can excuse Dave for not going there...

In terms of the first edition of the series, O'Hanlon seemed to be performing well, but like many an occasion on this programme I was more impressed by the guests he had performing alongside him. This episode featured one-liner stand-up Gary Delaney (who, out of interest to northern comedy fans, is Sarah Millican's boyfriend) and Josie Long. I probably favoured Delaney's one-liners over Long's narrative, if I'm honest, but both demonstrated why they're two of the most sought after comedians in the country.

Ardal O'Hanlon is on good form as the headline act at Dublin's Olympia Theatre, his saucer-eyed wonder undercut by a surreal streak. Supporting him on this trip back to his local theatre are Gary Delaney (a one-liner machine in the same vein as Milton Jones and Tim Vine) and the whimsical Josie Long.

Of the two, Long is the more appealing performer, with her diatribe on The Sun's Page Three girls being particularly well executed. Delaney is perhaps someone more to admire than like - you can't help but be in awe of someone who remembers so many gags, although the fact that he finds his own material quite so amusing does start to grate.

Ardal O'Hanlon's reasons for doing stand-up comedy

The former Father Dougal explains the appeal of life behind the mic.

The series where comedians return to their hometowns and perform a local gig is back. As a format, it's never really worked as intended because the comedians never reveal anything interesting about their formative years. O'Hanlon turns his set into a routine about accidentally killing the family dog and re-enacting a scene from The Godfather with his emotionally distant dad. What it does deliver is O'Hanlon's standup to an easy crowd as he performs at Dublin's Point, with fellow comics Gary Delaney and Josie Long filling out the bill.

A new run begins of the series in which each week a different comedian returns to his home town. Tonight it's Father Ted star Ardal O'Hanlon. A pity the programme concentrates less on the comedian's roots and more on a stand-up gig by him at Dublin's Olympia Theatre. That said, the opening does feature a funny, though very black, sketch about an unfortunate visit O'Hanlon makes to the family home. O'Hanlon's routine, as ever, is observant, child-like and madcap, taking in everything from the Irish economy to Indian joke writers.