The Last Leg

What do you call a comic with a positive slant? Adam Hills

Adam Hills is the comedian with one foot whom David Cameron and Samantha Cameron like to watch while in bed.

Another entertaining alternative review of the week with the team behind the popular Paralympics comedy round-up. Comedians Adam Hills and Josh Widdicombe are joined by guests who have been in the news this week, plus there are live studio challenges and sports reporter Alex Brooker gives us another update on his continuing quest to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.

Having become something of a success during the Paralympics last year, Channel 4 has brought back this live chat show looking at the week's events - and trying to ask questions no-one else would.

Hosted by Adam Hills (disabled - one foot), and featuring contributions from Josh Widdicombe (not disabled) and sports journalist Alex Brooker (disabled - one leg, hand deformities), The Last Leg features interviews with guests (this week it's actor Idris Elba - not disabled), as well as topical discussion.

However, the main feature is the contributions from online, especially under the Twitter hashtag #IsItOk, where people are encouraged to ask more uncomfortable and difficult questions, without fear of judgement. In this case I would like to ask my own question: #IsItOk that the mentally disabled get so much less TV coverage than the physically disabled?

I ask this because I'm disabled myself, but my disability is Asperger's syndrome. It's something I have written about before but I'm willing to bring it up again; the only disabled people you ever see on TV are those who look different, whether it's in terms of their appearance (e.g. missing limbs) or whether have to use some form of equipment (e.g. artificial feet). If you're disabled but look perfectly normal - because the part of you that's been affected is your brain, like mine is - then you might as well forget getting any coverage.

Over the next few days the Winter Special Olympics, which are the games for the mentally disabled, will be held in South Korea. The amount of coverage being given to it is minimal. The British have got seven alpine skiers going to the games, but will we see their efforts on national television? I somehow doubt we will. I fear that the names Wayne McCarthy, Jane Andrews, Mikael Undrom, Elizabeth Allen, Luke Purdie, Clare Lines and Robert Holden will not be remembered, or even acknowledged by most people.

However, for what it does, The Last Leg seems to cover most things rather well. My main problem, other than what I have already mentioned, is that half-an-hour seems too short. A live show like this needs more airtime to get comfortable.

Josh Widdicombe interview

Comedian Josh Widdicombe talks to Rupert Hawksley about the new series of The Last Leg, disability . . . and Nick Clegg

Adam Hills worries Paralympic heroes will be forgotten

Comic Adam Hills says last year's Paralympics helped change perceptions of disabled people.

This comedy chat show first saw the light of day as a cheeky late-night companion to the Paralympics last summer. Hosted by Australian stand-up Adam Hills, flanked by comedian Josh Widdicombe and presenter Alex Brooker - and tonight joined by Luther star Idris Elba as a special guest - the show boldly bowls into territory the PC police would declare off limits as it reviews the week's events. During the Paralympics, Hills and co dared to treat competitors as real people rather than brave saints and they encouraged viewers to join in - the show's Twitter hashtag #isitok is still live, so expect to see photos of Paralympic snowmen for openers.

There were many triumphs of the sporting summer but one of the less trumpeted was Channel 4's late-night Paralympic chat show. Free-wheeling and sparky, it felt like a new, relaxed angle on the comedy "gang show", with Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker backing up suave Australian host Adam Hills. Their reward is a series of non-Paralympic, Friday-night slots in which to "celebrate all that is best about Britain". And of course they'll still be asking their fateful, PC-skirting question, "Is it OK..?"

Adam Hills was one of the Paralympics' more unlikely stars, widely praised for his comic yet pointed take on the Games. So much so that this new series sees him being offered the chance to widen his brief: tonight, he'll return alongside regular sidekicks Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker to cast his eye over the last seven days of news. Expect regular updates, too, on Brooker's quest to participate in the Rio Paralympics. Well, as Games aftermaths go, it'll surely have more to recommend it than Tom Daley's Splash - Idris Elba, for one, who is the guest for tonight's opening edition.

Adam Hills: Comedy shouldn't aim to offend

Digital Spy caught up with Adam Hills ahead of The Last Leg's return to talk about whether the Paralympics really had a lasting legacy, his worst ever heckles, and if he finds Frankie Boyle offensive.

Alex Brooker: I was so nervous interviewing Cameron

Presenter Alex Brooker, 28, helped make history with Paralympics comedy show The Last Leg. A new series starts tonight.