Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Unlike The Omid Djalili Show, the stand-up comedy and sketch format is in safe hands in Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, paradoxically, because whatever Djalili might think of himself, Lee is an infinitely edgier, more dangerous operator. He never swears, yet his invective is coruscating, and last night - bringing the curtain down on a series that has never been less than 100 per cent watchable, even though I've done much of the watching through my fingers - he directed it at comedy itself, and in particular at the kind of American stand-ups worshipped by legions of British comedians. Lee doesn't do veneration, and deserves to be venerated for it.

Editor Note: This is another review which was written prior to the episodes being broadcast. The comedy episode was actually episode five.

Daringly or negligently, BBC Two may have upset Eastering Christians last night by transmitting Stewart Lee's anti-religion stand-up set last night. Benedict XVIII got it in the neck and so did John Paul II, or, at least, his marketing man did for selling lollipops bearing his features in Vatican Square. The Muslims were hardly more than a passing reference, however, and Lee got distracted by David Cameron, Laurel and Hardy and a postmodernist reading of his own act. The sketches were awful. His routine about the evangelist who turned up at his door with the poser "If Jesus is the answer what is the question?" (reply: "Is it, 'For which role was Robert Powell nominated for a Bafta?'") was brilliant. As it was 20 years ago, when Lee first performed it.

Editor Note: This review was published in The Times despite the fact the religion episode had actually been moved to the following week and thus had not been broadcast yet