The comedy week ahead...

The comedy week ahead…

Sunday September 18

TV: Richard E Grant celebrates Ealing comedies in a new series for Gold with the likes of Carrie Fisher, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Dame Diana Rigg, Mike Leigh and Peter Capaldi giving their ha’p'orth. Gold, 7pm. The season also includes screenings today of Who Done It? (2pm); Ealing's last comedy that includes Benny Hill’s screen debut; A Run For Your Money (3.35pm) about Welsh coal-cutting champions; Davy (5.15pm) featuring Harry Secombe as a music-hall performing having to decide whether to remain with his family's act or to go solo; and Passport To Pimlico (8pm), the jewel in the crown, after the London district discovers that it is, in fact part of Burgundy.

Monday September 19

RADIO: Love Thy Neighbour is not a sitcom that’s stood the test of time. It ran for 54 episodes from 1972, and revolved around old-school socialist Eddie Booth becoming outraged to discover that his new neighbours were black. The two men bickered using racist language which has barely been heard on TV since. Yet it attracted audiences up to 20 million. In this documentary, Still Loving Thy Neighbour?, Mark Hodkinson looks back at the series with Jack Smethurst, the actor who played Eddie Booth and who says it spelled the end of his career. He was seldom offered roles afterwards and worked for a while in a flower shop. Radio 4, 4pm

LIVE IN SWINDON: Last week, he performed in front of 13.5million people in the final of America’s Got Talent. Tonight he’s in Swindon. That’s showbusiness. But see brilliantly funny silent act Tape Face now before he’s lost to Vegas. Tour dates.

LIVE IN LONDON: Adam Hess’s second solo show, Feathers, offers a brilliant mix of exquisite one-liners and anecdotes of crushing social awkwardness, all delivered a a breathless speed. A hit of last month’s Edinburgh Fringe, it’s at the Soho Theatre all week before heading out on a UK tour.Review

Wednesday September 21

LIVE IN CARDIFF: James Acaster - whose serial nominations for the Edinburgh Comedy Award are now legendary - starts the tour of his latest work of stand-up genius, Reset, at Clwb Ifor Bach. It’s as distinctive, creative, funny and brilliantly constructed as always, a must-see for live comedy fans. Dates.

LIVE IN LONDON: A strong line-up of insanity launches the new Pickle Boy comedy night at the Howling Hops venue in Hackney. Funz & Gamez maestro Phil Ellis introduces the intense comedy of Nick Helm, high-energy double act Zach & Viggo and more laid-back social commentary from assured stand-up Dane Baptiste.

Thursday September 22

TV: It’s the moment all Red Dwarf fans have been waiting for… if it hadn’t been online for a week already. The first new episode in four years comes to Dave, reuniting Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat) and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten). The opening episode, Twentica, is set in an alternative America where modern technology is outlawed making both Kryten and Rimmer illegal. Review

TV: Josh Widdicombe’s sitcom Josh returns for a second series,’nerdier and more awkward than ever’.Elis James, Beattie Edmondson and Jack Dee all return, too. Available on iPlayer from 10am.

RADIO: Radio Active returns to the airwaves for a one-off special as Angus Deayton, Helen Atkinson Wood, Philip Pope and Michael Fenton Stevens reunite to recreate an episode of one of the most successful radio comedies of the 1980s, following their recent stage show at the Edinburgh Fringe. Radio 4, 6.30pm

Friday September 23

LIVE IN CORK: The city gets its own weekend-long comedy festival, graced by the likes of Sean Hughes, Deirdre O’Kane and Jason Byrne. The event is being organised by Jane Russell, who knows what she’s doing as former chief executive of Kilkenny’s Cat Laughs festival. Website

Saturday September 24

LIVE IN LONDON: Central London’s 99 Club opens a new venue tonight, in Browns restaurant St Martin's Lane, with a great opening night line-up of Nish Kumar, Ed Gamble and Carl Donnelly, plus host Matt Green.

LIVE IN LONDON: Edinburgh (and beyond) favourites Stewart Lee, Spencer Jones and Kieran Hodgson star in a ‘Post-Fringe Gala Bash’ at the Union Chapel in Islington.

LIVE IN CHELTENHAM: The town’s comedy festival draws to a close with a gala in the town hall featuring Aisling Bea, Howard Read, Katherine Ryan, Keith Farnan, and livewire improvisers The Noise Next Door.

• For full live comedy listings, use the pull-down menus at the top of the page to see what's on near you on any given day.

Published: 18 Sep 2016