A tight 5: December 19

CHORTLE's forums will be closing in the New Year. Although they have been a part of the site since our launch in 2000, they have become little-used in recent years as comedy fans turn to social media to comment and communicate. Just seven people have posted this month, compared to the 10,000 daily visits the main Chortle site receives.

TOM DEACON is quitting his radio show on Capital South Coast after 19 months to concentrate on his comedy career. The former Chortle Student Comedy Award winner joined the station in July 2015, and now his co-host Emma Real-Davies and producer Jono Holmes will continue the 6am-10am weekday show without him.

STAND-UP Brice Morton has a role in the next run of Still Game at Glasgow's SSE Hydro, creators Ford Kiernan and Greg Kemphill have revealed – although they would give no further details of the role. The rest of the team return to the venue, where they had a record-breaking 21-night run in 2014, from February 4. Tickets.

STEPHEN FRY is set to play Nazi Hermann Göring in a biopic of Wigan-born opera singer Margery Booth, a Second World War spy who performed for Hitler and British Prisoners of War. Lesley Garrett is to provide the vocals for the lead character in Margery Booth: The Spy In The Eagles' Nest, ScreenDaily reports.

BEEFEATER Gin is staging a couple of free comedy gigs at its London distillery. Daliso Chaponda and Adam Bloom will be performing beneath the giant pot stills used to distill the spirit in Kennington, South London. on January 28. There are two shows, at 1.30pm and 3.30pm, and tickets, for over-18s only, must be reserved here.

Published: 19 Dec 2016