Extra competitive

Gervais and Merchant vie for best actor

14/11/2006 … Extras co-creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are to go head-to-head for the best comedy actor accolade at the British Comedy Awards.

Ready to tour again

Gervais previews new live show

14/11/2006 … Ricky Gervais is planning a new national stand-up tour next year – and is ready to preview it.

Club comedian Oates dies

...as does comic actor Stevens

14/11/2006 … Veteran comedy actor Ronnie Stevens and clubland comic Chubby Oates have both died in the past few days.

MTV drops Brand

Chat show ends after 9 months

14/11/2006 … MTV is dropping Russell Brand's chat show 1 Leicester Square.

Annette Fagon – Original Review

Review by Steve Bennett

14/11/2006 … Livewire Annette Fagon has bags of appealing confidence and a natural energy that doesn’t really need all her chivvying of the audience to ‘give me some noise’…

Donna Spence – Original Review

Review by Steve Bennett

14/11/2006 … Donna Spence takes forever asking all the men in the room to make some noise, all the women in the room to make some noise, all the single men in the room to make…

Game on

Still Game scoops Scottish Bafta

13/11/2006 … BBC sitcom Still Game has been named the best programme to come out of Scotland – by the viewers themselves.

13/11/2006 … STEPHEN FRY and Alan Bennett have both made a viewers' list of the top ten British icons in a poll for BBC2’s The Culture Show.