The comedy week ahead

The comedy week ahead...

Sunday November 13

TV:Karl Pilkington returns for a third series of his travelogue The Moaning of Life - this time without Ricky Gervais setting him up. This is also the first series to premiere on a free-to-air channel, Pick. But the grumpy cynic continues to visit some of the world’s oddest corners – seeking answers to questions such as how to approach marriage, what is happiness and why bother having kids? 10pm

Tuesday November 15

RADIO: In Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar, the godfather of alternative comedy delivers a mixture of stand-up, memoir and philosophy from behind the counter of his imaginary eaterie. Radio 4, 11pm

LIVE IN LONDON: Get ready to part-ay, as the Birthday Girls bring their ‘nips-out, body-rocking sketch show’ to the Soho Theatre, creating the vibe of a big night out while presenting their offbeat characters. Beattie Edmondson, Rose Johnson and Camille Ucan will be raving in the basement from now until Saturday. Review

Wednesday November 16

TV: A treasure trove of previously unheard Peter Cook material gets an airing tonight, after his widow Lin gave Victor Lewis-Smith and a BBC crew unprecedented access to the comedian’s private recordings, diaries, letters and photographs. The resulting hour-long film includes hitherto unknown comedy sketches, rediscovered interviews, and long-lost footage of him performing with Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers and David Attenborough.. A major find is The Dead Sea Tapes, an LP recorded by Peter and Dudley in 1963, but never released due to concerns about blasphemy law), and long thought lost. Also included are rediscovered classic sketches from Not Only But Also, reconstructed in the edit suite after mute film clips were retrieved from Australia, and reunited with the original audio tracks. There is also footage from Cook’s memorial service, while Lin reveals the private side of a man better known for his acerbic public persona. The Undiscovered Peter Cook, BBC Four, 10pm

RADIO: Marcus Brigstocke returns with a short series of The Brig Society, starting with a vowto sort out the press. Helping him will be Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Will Andrew and Colin Hoult. Radio 4, 6.30pm

LIVE IN LONDON: Jordan Brookes’s ambitious, cinematic, and vauntingly meta- one-man show The Making Of… runs at the Museum Of Comedy for two nights. Incredibly smart (occasionally a bit too much so for his own good) Brookes is nudging the boundaries of theatrical one-man comedy. Review

LIVE IN HARLOW: A strong line-up at The Square as pin-sharp Nick Doody, effusive Phil Nichol and peculiar Harriet Kemsley share an engagingly diverse bill.

Thursday November 17

LIVE IN LONDON: Super-inventive character comedy as Colin Hoult brings his wonderfully theatrical alter-ego Anna Mann to the Soho Theatre for three nights, allegedly tackling the black dog of depression, but in reality stupidly subverting the trend for comics to talk about their anxeties. Review.

LIVE IN NEWPORT: Brendon Burns’s touring show Black Comedian - which was known as Dumb White Guy at the Edinburgh Fringe - hits Wales, playing Hobo’s tonight and Le Pub in Newport tomorrow. It's a typically provocative look at race, especially within comedy, and whether political correctness is counterproductive.

Friday November 18

LIVE IN LONDON: Roar with Laughter, London Zoo’s annual fundraiser for its work with wildlife comes to the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith with a starry line-up of :Alan Davies, Dara O Briain, Kevin Eldon, Rob Deering and Seann Walsh.

Saturday November 19

TV:Michael McIntyre’s Big Show returns with guests Ellie Goulding and Olly Murs, who plays ‘send to all’. BBC One, 8.10pm

RADIO: David Baddiel, Rob Newman, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis return to Radio 4 Extra for a rerun of series 3 of The Mary Whitehouse Experience, first broadcast onRadio 1 in 1990 - the year before it transferred to BBC Two. 11pm

• 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: 13 Nov 2016