Would I Lie To You?

Lee Mack and David Mitchell's quick-witted cross examinations are by far the best bits of this show, and tonight they get to bounce off Terry Wogan, who claims, among other things, that he likes to fire a loaded pistol every Christmas. The broadcasting legend also gives Rob Brydon an excuse to roll out his impression.

Terry Wogan is on the panel this evening, so you know it's only a matter of time before host Rob Brydon employs his scarily accurate impersonation of the great broadcaster. But he's not the only one present with a facility for accents, as comedian Kevin Bridges proves when he drops his Scottish brogue quicker than you can say "John Barrowman".

As ever, though, it's the forensic cross-examinations that make the show, particularly those directed at Sir Terry, who has to convince the opposing team that he performs minor acts of arson for kicks and begins his Christmas Day celebrations in a most unorthodox manner. You'll also get a strange buzz when he says the words "blank" and "blanks" again after so many years.

Sir Terry Wogan joins the panel this week for the comedy game show in which celebrities tell supposedly true tales for the consideration of a rival team. Wogan claims that he begins Christmas Day by firing a loaded pistol. Plus, comedian Kevin Bridges has to explain what happened when he found a suitcase of bananas. Team captain Lee Mack is also joined by his Not Going Out co-star Katy Wix, and David Mitchell welcomes his comedy partner Robert Webb].

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.