Would I Lie To You?

Radio Times review

We know from past experience that the out-takes Would I Lie to You? puts on the end-of-series leftovers platter aren't disappointing. Far from it.

Would I Lie to You? has such a rich seam of comedy that routines as enjoyable as David Mitchell discussing his alleged jigsaw habit ("I find it incredibly irritating when other people fiddle with my jigsaws...") or Clare Balding speaking in German end up on the cutting-room floor.

There are the usual flashes of Lee Mack's ad-lib brilliance here, but best of all is a weepingly funny tour de force from Bob Mortimer, stoutly maintaining that he had a pet owl he used to carry around on a cushion.

Radio Times review

Before I started watching this I thought, "I wonder if they'll add some sleigh bells over the thrashy theme music" and I'm delighted to say they have. There's also a spangly snowflake backdrop and several Christmas-themed claims/tales/festive fibs.

To wit, "These are two of the best gifts I was given last Christmas," announces David Mitchell, flourishing a top hat and magic wand and prompting all of us to try to picture what Christmas Day might be like at the Coren Mitchells.

But the best prop arrives when Bill Bailey introduces a pet bird called Jacob, that he claims he once smuggled into the cinema with him. The fact it's a cockatoo is heroically ignored, even by Lee Mack: no pre-watershed-unfriendly gags here (although why Mitchell's enthusiastic mime of church bell-ringing gets a laugh might take some explaining). Kelly Holmes, Jo Brand and Ruth Jones add to the mendacious merriment.

Would I Lie to You? review

Grime artist Tinchy Stryder gave Jack Dee, Rob Brydon and co plenty of opportunities to be very uncool as the panel show continues to go from strength to strength.

David Mitchell drags Radio Times into the fray in WILTY

The panel show captain gave us some photoshoot advice, all while trying to decide if Pointless' Richard Osman once shared a jacuzzi with the Eggheads...

Radio Times review

No sooner has she left The One Show sofa, the ubiquitous Alex Jones is back, this time on the panel show in which participants attempt to hoodwink their opponents with absurd facts and plausible lies about themselves. It's all in good fun, and host Rob Brydon and team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack know how to squeeze the maximum amount of laughter from each absurd suggestion. Comedy actor Greg Davies, performance poet John Cooper Clarke and TV presenter Rick Edwards are also along for the ride in this edition.

Radio Times review

Last week it was judo, this week netball is the sport at which Lee Mack must feign competence, claiming to have been made captain of his (or possibly his wife's) netball team. Could he be pulling off an elaborate double bluff of the kind you occasionally get on this programme, where someone's flailing inability to sound plausible is really a smokescreen to cover the fact they're telling the truth?

Fans of the show will be glad to learn that Bob Mortimer is on Lee's team. Nobody unhitches the game from its moorings so brilliantly, this time with tales of a childhood game he claims to have played called Theft and Shrubbery. Also tonight: three different impressions of Alan Hansen.

TV review: Would I Lie To You?, BBC1

Maybe I was out when the trumpets were blowing but it seemed to me that Would I Lie To You? slipped back onto BBC One on Friday night for its ninth, yes, ninth, series without much of a fanfare. Which is a shame. This is one of my favourite panel shows. It is devoid of cynicism, packed full of laughs.

Rarely does this parlour game deliver an unfunny episode ... and it hasn't done that this week. One of WILTY's strengths is drawing out the immaculate timing that lays dormant in non-comedians: Moira Stuart says nothing for several minutes, before authoritatively laying down one of the funniest ad-libs of the night. Her description of how she enjoys a crispy jacket spud smothered in molten KitKat is also heavenly. Plus, did Danny Dyer really wear a zebra mask on a trip to the zoo to deter autograph-hunters?

Would I Lie to You? preview

It's almost the panel show equivalent of a sitcom.