Jack Dee Live at the Apollo

Fans of stand-up comedy - prepare to gorge yourself till you're sick. In a good way. Because Live at the Apollo doesn't just give us Jack Dee as host at his most magnificently misanthropic. It also boasts guests like Ross Noble, Omid Djalili and several others adept at making us emit snorts, giggles and other highly undignified noises.


Episode 1. Guest comedian Joan Rivers

It's surprising to learn that Joan Rivers is in her 70s. Partly because she's still such an irrepressible wit, but mainly because she's had so much plastic surgery, she could be her own Madame Tussaud's dummy. Not that she'd be offended by the observation - Joan's the proudest nip-tuckee in celeb-land and thinks we should all get some done.

Episode 2. Guest comedian Ardal O'Hanlon

While Jack Dee found success by cultivating the demeanour of an overflowing ashtray, Ardal took the opposite route and based his career on being unremittingly likeable. As the nice-but-dim Dougal he was integral to the success of Father Ted, but what's he like behind a mike? Pretty damn good - he helped found Ireland's first ever comedy club, after all.

Episode 3. Guest comedian Jo Brand

Of all Jack's guests at the Apollo, the one who probably mirrors his own style most closely is Jo. We'd pay good money to see the two of them try to 'out deadpan' each other. But let's clear something up. The psychiatric-nurse-turned-comedy-matriarch does not hate men (she thinks they're fine on principle) and she's not related to Russell Brand, even if he's apparently modelled his hair on hers.

Episode 4. Guest comedian Ross Noble

If you don't know much about Ross, consider that as a child he decided he wanted to be a stuntman and conducted his own training in his back garden - which led to him smashing his shoulder "into smithereens". He takes the same kamikaze approach to stand-up comedy, leaping onto the stage with very little material rehearsed, relying only on his own improvisatory genius.

Episode 5. Guest comedian Omid Djalili

"The man who puts the fat into fatwa, the fun into fundamentalism and the ham into Hamas" - that's Omid in his own words, and he ain't kidding. The British-Iranian comedian has spent years taking on the most controversial subjects around, from suicide bombings to US-Iranian relations. As he says, "Iran's only exports are pistachio nuts and massive international ill feeling."

Episode 6. Guest comedian Jack Dee

As if hosting the series wasn't enough, Jack gets to be his own guest for the final outing. And why not? It's always a pleasure to see everyone's favourite grouchy uncle getting back to basics and doing what he does best. Namely, standing on a stage and whinging a lot.