A tight 5: February 20

THE Phoenix Nights live shows raised about £5million for Comic Relief, Paddy McGuinness has revealed. He also praised the doctor who came from the audience to the aid of Ted Robbins, who suffered a cardiac arrest on stage on the first night. ‘If he hadn't, Ted would have been dead,’ he says on tomorrow’s Jonathan Ross Show. ‘That would have been it.’

SHAUN TURNER has become the first new comedian through to the semi-finals of the Chortle Student Comedy Award. He triumphed at the heat in Warwick last night with his set about his cerebral palsy. The next heat is in Durham on Monday. Here is an extract from Turner's winning set:

LAUREL & HARDY are to be revived as a cartoon series, Variety reports. French company Gaumont Animation will make 78, seven-minute episodes after securing the rights to the characters, 50 years after the original cartoon series came out. Managing director Pierre Belaisch said: 'In 1966 Hanna-Barbera produced 156 animated episodes and fans everywhere fell in the love with the animated duo. We want to bring the world a totally new series with an updated look, design and feel while maintaining the slapstick humor that made this twosome world famous.'

ALAN CARR and Matt Berry have revoiced characters in The Spongebob Movie for British audiences. Carr plays Seagull No 1. and Toast star Berry is Bubbles The Dolphin.

VETERAN entertainer Dick Van Dyke and his brother Tag are to make guest appearances in US sitcom The Middle. They will play the uncles of Patricia Heaton's character Frankie, Dutch and Tag Spence.

Published: 20 Feb 2015