Comic's cancer diaries, and the rest of the week's broadcast comedy

Our pick of the comedy on TV, radio and on demand this week…:

Monday October 30

RHOD GILBERT: A PAIN IN THE NECK FOR SU2C: With the help of intimate video diaries, this documentary charts what happened after the comedian was diagnosed with head and neck cancer, caused by the HPV virus, in 2022. Channel 4 calls it an 'intimate, inspiring and humorous documentary… through 18 months of hope and hell', from diagnosis, through initial surgery, to chemotherapy and radiotherapy - up to the triumphant moment when he rings the end-of-treatment bell. Then there's the agonising wait to find out if his treatment has worked as he tries to pull his life back together… Channel 4, 9pm

RICHARD OSMAN'S HOUSE OF GAMES: Susie McCabe represents the comedy world in the quiz this week, facing off against A Place in the Sun presenter Scarlette Douglas, The Wanted singer Max Georg and wine expert Olly Smith. BBC Two, 6pm

Tuesday October 31

BANGED UP: In this jaw-dropping new series, seven celebrities are banged up inside newly decommissioned HMP Shrewsbury to see what life's really like in British prisons in 2023 - overcrowded, understaffed, and on the brink. Comedian Tom Rosenthal is among the inmates, with his fellow lags being EastEnders star Sid Owen, Gogglebox's Marcus Luther, singer HRVY, Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens and former MP Neil Parish, who lost his seat after being caught watching porn in the Commons Chamber. Channel 4, 9.15pm

Friday November 3

STAND UP TO CANCER: THE TAKEOVER: Davina McCall, Adam Hills, Joe Lycett and Munya Chawawa host a 90-minute live show for Channel 4's annual fundraiser, joined by famous faces, including Rita Ora, Oti Mabuse, Cush Jumbo, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Charlotte Ritchie and many more. 9.15pm

THE COMEDY ROAST FOR SU2C: And as part of the fundraiser Rhod Gilbert hosts this showcase of near-the-knuckle humour in front of an audience who all have a personal connection to cancer. Trading blows will be comics Jordan Gray, Ellie Taylor, Danny Beard, Tom Stade,Joe Lycett Nish Kumar. Sara Barron, Thanyia Moore, Bobby Mair, Harriet Kemsley, Fatiha El-Ghorri and Larry Dean plus presenter Davina McCall. Channel 4, 10pm

SEAN LOCK: LOCKIPEDIA: The fundraising night will end with a screening of this 2010 stand-up show, recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as a reminder of a talent lost to cancer too young. To donate to Stand Up To Cancer online, visit Channel4.com/SU2

HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU: Jo Brand will present this week's episode with Zoe Lyons one of the panellists opposite environmental campaigner and former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey. BBC One, 9pm

KIRI'S TV FLASHBACK: Kiri Pritchard-McLean is back for a new series featuring weird, wonderful and funny clips from more than 50 years of television history in the BBC Wales archive. In the first episode, the focus is on inventions: from a ridiculous contraption for walking along rooftops, a soap opera made of sweet wrappers and a device for sounding the alarm when it rains on the washing line. BBC One Wales, 8pm

Published: 29 Oct 2023