The comedy week ahead

The comedy week ahead.

Sunday April 19

LIVE IN LONDON: How much improv can you take? Twenty shows are hitting the Tristan Bates Theatre this week for the fourth Improvfest, including ad-libbed musicals, Shakespeare, romantic dates and spoof episodes of Downton Abbey and Quantum Leap. Groups from the USA, Switzerland & Ireland join the Brits, kicking off with The Pina Coladas at 1.30pm today. Website

Monday April 20

LIVE IN LONDON: Alternative US comic and musician Dave Hill hits the Aces and Eights Saloon Bar in Tufnell Park for a week of mild-mannered and occasionally absurdist storytelling with support from Tim Key tonight, then Aisling Bea, Nick Helm and Harry Hill. And, trivia fans, Dave Hill's rock band Valley Lodge wrote the theme song for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

LIVE IN LONDON: Udderbelly is hosting a Funny Peculiar benefit for The Mental Health Foundation, featuring sneering Frenchman Marcel Lucont, high-energy musical parodies from Frisky & Mannish and classy stand-up from Joe Lycett and Felicity Ward.

LIVE IN LONDON: Panic Brothers – the musical double act stand-up Richard Morton performed with Reg Meuross – are back, 25 years after their circuit heyday, with a series of cabaret-style evenings of music and comedy at the Bloomsbury Theatre, this first one headlined by Jo Brand.

TV: E4 today welcomes US dysfunctional family sitcom The Goldbergs. Set in the 1980s, it's narrated by Patton Oswalt as a grown-up version of the 11-year-old Adam at the centre of the action, Wonder Years-style. It also stars Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin as patriarch Murray and Wendi McLendon-Covey as his wife, Beverly. 7.30pm

TV: Silicon Valley, Mike Judge's comedy set in California's world of high-tech startups, returns to Sky Atlantic for its second series. 10pm

Thursday April 23

TV: A one-hour special marks the return of W1A, the comedy about the inner machinations of the BBC. Challenges facing Head of Values Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) and his team include a visit from The Prince of Wales, the threat of losing Wimbledon, and the search for the next big factual entertainment series after Britain's Tastiest Village failed to fly. BBC Two, 9pm

Friday April 24

ONLINE: Peter Kay's Car Share, the comic's first sitcom for 11 years, will be available exclusively on iPlayer from 9pm today, before being broadcast on BBC One. In it he plays a supermarket assistant manager, John Redmond, forced to share his commute with co-worker Kayleigh Kitson, a promotions rep played by Sian Gibson. Although the show bears Kay's name in the title, it was written by Tim Reid and Paul Coleman. Episode guide.

LIVE IN LONDON: Absurdists assemble at Pull The Other One in Nunhead, with stand-up Tony Law, musical shenanigans with Tina T'urner Tea Lady and physical wit from Spencer Jones as The Herbert all on the bill.

Published: 19 Apr 2015