The comedy week ahead

Today

TV: The World Cup is imminent, as if you could have failed to notice, and in a new episode of The Simpsons tonight, Homer becomes a referee in Brazil. Sky 1, 8pm

Monday June 9

RADIO: Radio 2 kicks off its Comedy Week with a half-hour stand-up show from the brilliantly passionate Tommy Tiernan at 10pm. Tomorrow it’s Luisa Omielan's Party, Wednesday it’s Lucy Beaumont’s sitcom pilot To Hull And Back; and on Thursday Steve Wright launches the BBC Radio New Comedy Award during his afternoon show.

LIVE IN LONDON: Stewart Lee begins a couple of weeks of work-in-progress gigs at the Soho Theatre, entitled Room With A Stew, tonight.

DVD: The fourth series of Arrested Development - the one revived for Netflix with a unique format concentrating on one character per episode to fit around the cast’s busts schedules - is out on DVD today. Order

Tuesday June 10

LIVE IN LONDON: Aamer Rahman, one half of Australian comedy duo Fear of a Brown Planet, performs his first solo show, The Truth Hurts, at Soho Theatre this week, promising a hard-hitting look at politics, racism and the War on Terror.

Wednesday June 11

LIVE IN HARROGATE: It’s gentle and effective humour at the Sitting Room tonight with quirky and wry observations from the lovely Alun Cochrane and Tom Wrigglesworth mixed in with enjoyable weirdness from Welshman Tommy Rowson.

Thursday June 12

TV: Jo Brand, Alan Davies and Kevin Eldon star as stressed-out social workers in Playhouse Presents… Damned - a new comedy written by Brand and Morwenna Banks. Also look out for stand-up Romesh Ranganathan playing a ‘pedantic and badly-dressed co-worker obsessed with performance targets.’ Could this do for social workers what Brand’s Getting On did for the NHS? Sky Arts 1, 9pm

Friday June 13

LIVE IN LONDON: It would be remiss of us not to mention the Chortle conference, giving a unique insight into the world of comedy and invaluable tips on how to get ahead. As well as big names such as Alexei Sayle and David Baddiel, the event gives the chance to hear from - and speak to - TV and radio commissioners, club owners, Edinburgh Fringe stalwarts and professional comics. Full details.

LIVE IN LONDON: The Bloomsbury Theatre is hosting a stand-up benefit in aid of the Free Fringe, with a line-up that includes Stewart Lee, Pippa Evans, Marcel Lucont, Richard Herring and Free Fringe founder Peter Buckley Hill.

LIVE IN DERBY: The city’s week-long comedy festival kicks off with a solo show from Ben Norris and a screening of the Jerry Seinfeld film Comedian. A fire at the Assembly Rooms in March had caused organisers some problems, since the venue will be out of action of 18 months, but new homes have been found for shows. Future events include Norman Lovett, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre and an Edinburgh preview all-dayer on Sunday 22.

Saturday June 14

RADIO: Lenny Henry plays Groucho Marx - yes, you read that right - in a ‘musical fantasy’ based on a meeting almost 50 years ago between the legendary comic and TS Eliot after the two became unlikely penpals. But their subsequent dinner proved a disappointment, as writer Jakko M Jakszyk, explores in this dramatisation, Dear Mr Eliot: When Groucho Met Tom,. Radio 3, 9.30pm

LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM: You can’t go far wrong with the bill at Jongleurs tonight: Jeremy O’Donnell, Romesh Ranganathan, Dan Nightingale and Jeff Innocent.

Published: 8 Jun 2014