Would I Lie To You?

I really don't know what they're giving panellists before they go on this show.

The start of series five dissolves into a puddle of infectious hysteria that has more than one of the cast absolutely weeping with laughter.

I blame The Apprentice's Nick Hewer, who kicks off proceedings with a wonderfully straight-faced tale of how he and Lord Sugar like to relax after a tough day's filming in the boardroom.

He's a very welcome addition to the line-up, proving that you don't have to be a professional stand-up to get big laughs on this show.

Team captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell are also joined this week by Jack Whitehall and Rebecca Front as well as Miranda Hart.

The latter is reduced to helpless tears of mirth by her own very unlikely sounding tale about trying out for QPR's women's football team. But it's host Rob Brydon's own demonstration of a cuddle jumper that really brings the house down.

While much of Would I Lie To You? would work almost as well on radio, the cuddle jumper is an item of clothing which absolutely must be seen to be fully enjoyed.

A perfect blend of innocent silliness and razor-sharp wit, Would I Lie To You? is still the perfect way to wind down for the weekend.

And this might just be the funniest episode ever.

Lee Mack interview

Funnyman Lee Mack tells TV Choice about his return as a team captain for the new series of the comedy panel show Would I Lie To You?...

BBC confirms more 'Would I Lie To You?'

The BBC has confirmed that comedy panel show Would I Lie To You? will return for a fifth run.

Two things can happen when this show really takes off. The back-and-forth over whether a story is true can spiral off in daft directions, as when Julian Clary relates how he's trying to persuade his broody chicken to hatch a duck egg. Or the exchanges can get surprisingly heated. These take-off moments can be too much for the rhythms of the show and end up being edited out. However, here in the final episode of the series, those unseen bits are gathered in for our amusement, and a very enjoyable bunch they are, too.

Deborah Meaden from Dragons' Den strikes me as a hard-hearted rationalist, a no-nonsense type. Would she really be the sort of person to call in an exorcist because the furniture in her house moved around in the night? That's what she asks us to believe as a panellist taking part in tonight's truth-twisting japes and, as always, you're torn: is she clumsily embroidering a lie she has just read off the card or is she deliberately fumbling the telling of a true story? The same dilemma presents itself when Patrick Kielty's anecdote about once punching Muhammad Ali unfolds rather unconvincingly and when David Mitchell explains how he used a calculator to talk to Captain Kirk during episodes of Star Trek. It's horribly plausible.

Do you think Rob Brydon is telling the truth when he assures us that when panellists read statements off their cards, they're seeing them for the very first time?

Or is that a lie as well? That thought might have occurred to you a few times already as all the participants turn out to be surprisingly capable of spinning a believable yarn around the most unlikely of subjects. So either the show is fibbing about the rules or Britain's celebs are actually a far more devious bunch than we give them credit for.

Tonight, no-nonsense Dragon Deborah Meaden insists that she once called in an exorcist after spooky goings-on in her home, Patrick Kielty claims an extraordinary meeting with Muhammad Ali, stand-up comic Mark Watson relives a childhood trauma, Bernard Cribbins holds up his hands to car theft. Worryingly, we're inclined to believe every word they say.

Team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack are on especially fine form tonight.

In tonight's episode of the comedy panel show, guests Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Rufus Hound, Miranda Hart and Rhod Gilbert compete to disentangle outlandish fact from fiction. Can it be true, for instance, that Fearnley-Whittingstall allows his dog to lick a well-known yeast extract spread off his face? Has Hound visited every pub called The Red Lion inside the M25, apart from four? Comedian Rob Brydon is the host, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack as the team captains.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, protector of poultry, guardian of gourds and foragers' friend, only gets picked for panel shows because he doesn't kick up a stink when comedians tease him for being a wet hedge-muncher. Here, though, his sense of self-humour is tested to the max when he reads out the line, "Occasionally, I put Marmite on my face and let my dog lick it off." If Hugh's telling the truth, he's an even better sport than we've given him credit for. But, all angles considered, we watched hoping it was a fib. The alternative is just too creepy. Also guesting is Miranda Hart who, thankfully, gets through the half-hour without once referencing her boringly self-deprecating belief that she looks like a man. Best in show is David Mitchell's fight with Rhod Gilbert over the aforementioned yeast-based spread.

Who's telling the truth?

This is a good television show. Would I lie to you? Okay, I'll come clean. This is an average television show, perfectly fine for watching if you have just got in from the pub three sheets to the wind.

Rob Brydon displays the patience of Job in tonight's episode: he waits almost 20 minutes - 20 minutes! - before indulging in an impression of guest Ronnie Corbett. I always thought it was like a tic he couldn't control. Aside from Rob's golfing buddy, the guests are master of the double entendre Julian Clary, doughty Geordie Sarah Millican and chirpy Holly Walsh, who proves sharp with the one-liners. The stories are as tall as ever: Clary has a life-sized statue of himself astride a unicorn in his garden; and Millican once spent three hours on the Asda shuttle bus, for a day out. But the comedy hits the greatest heights when Corbett claims he actually had to ask for four candles in a shop.