The comedy week ahead

The comedy week ahead…

Tonight

ONLINE: Experience all the excitement of a live comedy show on a hugely topical issue – but oddly delayed by ten days after it was made. Perhaps that demonstrates the extent of the BBC's nervousness surrounding Frankie Boyle. The contentious comic takes to the iPlayer for a Referendum Autopsy, a mix of stand-up, discussion and audience interaction featuring fellow comics and experts that was recorded just as the Scottish Independence Referendum polls closed. Available from 9pm. And if you're in London, Boyle has seven 'work in progress' gigs at the Soho Theatre this week, starting on Wednesday.

LIVE IN GLASGOW: The Scottish Comedian Of The Year competition reaches its climax at the O2 ABC venue tonight, with Allan Lindsay, Bruce Fummey, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Duncan Guthrie, Graham Mackie, Harry Garrison, Jim Smith, Robin Grainger, Rosco Mcclelland, Ross Leslie, Stephen Buchanan and Liam Withnail fighting it out for the lucrative prize.

Monday September 29

LIVE IN ABERDEEN: Billy Connolly, in the papers for all the wrong reasons because of his health woes, returns to the stage where he belongs for a 15-night tour of Scotland, kicking off at the Aberdeen music hall tonight. Connolly also features in BBC One's family tree show Who Do You Think You Are? on Thursday.

LIVE IN LONDON: The last two heats of the BBC Radio New Comedy Award are being held at Up The Creek in Greenwich tonight and Wednesday. What future stars are waiting to be unearthed?

RADIO: Radio Scotland is airing a pilot episode of Homework, a sitcom created by radio producer Richard Melvin and based on his real-life situation of being a father of two, trying to run a business from home with his best friends. This one-off episode stars Sanjeev Kohli, Julia Sutherland and Miles Jupp, among others. Radio Scotland, 1.30pm then on iPlayer

RADIO: Kerry Godliman's comedy series Kerry's List returns to Radio 4 with the usual mixture of sitcom, sketches, stand-up and songs. This week's list includes: explaining religion to a child; making soup; ham strings and laminating something. 11.30am

Tuesday September 30

LIVE IN LONDON: The Tommy Cooper tribute show Just Like That! starts a mammoth four-month run at - appropriately enough - the Museum Of Comedy, fresh(ish) from the Edinburgh Fringe.

LIVE IN BELFAST: Simon Munnery brings his innovative show Flym - an odd mix of stand-up, live animation, and pre-filmed segments, to the Black Box,.

Wednesday October 1

LIVE IN LEEDS: Mark Watson kicks off his tour of Flaws, probably his most personal show to date, reflecting his renewed passion for stand-up after having a crisis of confidence, or possibly worse, in the previous year - which he speaks about honestly and wittily here . Review and dates

LIVE IN SHEFFIELD: Just down the M1, Robin Ince kicks off the month-long Sheffield Comedy Festival. It's not too dense a programme, with just a couple of shows most nights outside of the weekend, but it certainly catches all the big tours and some of the more interesting shows of the season. Website.

LIVE IN WREXHAM: Chris Ramsay resumes his tour of The Most Dangerous Man On Saturday Morning Television, an upbeat show based on the time he was kicked off Sky's Soccer am for being more than cheeky. Review and dates.

LIVE IN LONDON: Former BBC New Comedy Award winner and proud voice of Hull, Lucy Beaumont brings her best newcomer-nominated Edinburgh show We Can Twerk It Out to the Soho Theatre for four nights.

Thursday October 2

LIVE IN WINCHESTER: Richard Herring kicks off both his Lord Of The Dance Settee tour - which will keep him busy well into late spring - and the long weekend of the Winchester Comedy Festival, which also includes the likes of Bridget Christie, Katherine Ryan and Hal Cruttenden. Richard Herring dates

LIVE IN MANCHESTER: A strong bill at the Comedy Store this weekend revolves around fine circuit stalwarts Adam Bloom, Ben Norris and Jason Cook, creator of BBC Two's Hebburn.

Friday October 3

LIVE IN WINCHESTER: Dave Gorman also chooses the Winchester festival to embark on his new tour, Dave Gorman Gets Straight To The Point* (*The Powerpoint). It comes hot on the heels of his Dave series Modern Life Is Goodish, but promises entirely new material.

LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM: The second city's comedy festival kicks off tonight, with guests over the ten days including Tommy Tiernan, David O'Doherty and Tony Law. Website.

TV: Terrible title, terrible premise - but can Channel 4's Scrotal Recall overcome that to become the next comedy hit? It follows the exploits of 20-something Dylan - played by Johnny Flynn - who must contact everyone he's ever slept with to tell them he has chlamydia...

Saturday October 4

LIVE IN LONDON: The musical version of David Baddiel's film The Infidel kicks off at the Theatre Royal Stratford East tonight, featuring music by Erran Baron Cohen, Sacha's brother, and starring comedian Kev Orkian in the Omid Djalili role of a man raised Muslim who discovers he's actually Jewish by birth.

LIVE IN NOTTINGHAM: The city's Just The Tonic comedy club celebrates its 20th birthday in style, with a monster gig at the Royal Concert Hall. Daniel Kitson comperes a great line-up of Johnny Vegas, Paul Foot, Alun Cochrane and a rare stand-up appearance by John Thomson.

Published: 28 Sep 2014