Front Row, R4, Friday night

A humorous column I wrote and performed about the 75th anniversary of the drive-in was aired on Friday night on Front Row. It's on Listen Again and will be for a week: it's the show dated Friday June 6, and the column is on about five minutes from the end, where my columns always go. Nice production by a man called Jack, too.

Music Group

Even though, scandalously, I am not listed anywhere, I am the secret guest on Phil Hammond's The Music Group on Radio 4 this lunchtime, 1.30pm - recorded on Friday in Brighton. (This is what happens when you're a late booking. I'm not proud. In fact, I'm still enormously flattered to be asked onto this type of show.) Just in case you're by a radio, I can say that it was a very jolly programme to be on with Polly Toynbee and Zoe Ball, and to play The Cure's One Hundred Years to a theatreful of Radio 4 listeners was a serious milestone for my broadcasting career. (You can always Listen Again.) As you were.

Blog etc.

I have a new blog about portrayals of "the Troubles" on TV on the Guardian website today (ha ha, they won't let me write for the newspaper, but there I am at the tradesmen's entrance, sniffing the rarefied air inside), and I'm on Richard Bacon's Five Live show between 11pm and 12.30 tonight. As you were.

News 24: Happy-Go-Lucky

Filled in for Mark Kermode on News 24 yesterday. It's available to view here. (Warning: they showed the wrong clip of In Bruges (the one I was expecting was the one I carefully set up) and then ran a clip of Happy-Go-Lucky under my review of, well, In Bruges. I just kept talking and wished it hadn't be so windy out there.

Radio and TV with Fassbinder link

You can hear me banging on about Rainer Werner Fassbinder twice today, once on Radio 4's Film Programme, and then afterwards on News 24, where I shall be filling the shoes of Mark Kermode again (and as well as the new releases, Berlin Alexanderplatz is my DVD of the week). I fully expect half the cameras and desks to have been sold off at the BBC newsroom when I get there, and will probably have to sit on a crate while I'm waiting.

Banter repeats

The humorous panel game Banter (series one) is being partially repeated by Radio 4 in the 11.30 slot on Tuesdays starting tonight, September 11. We've been told that a new series will be aired in the New Year. Hooray.

What it says

I'm saying: you'd have to be in the Glasgow area, but if you are, I'm hosting a couple of sessions at the first and maybe only BBC Film Festival on Glasgow Green this Sunday (September 9). It should be good fun anyway, with loads of free screenings and events throughout the day in some tents. My sessions are with three screenwriters (Jeremy Brock, Kevin Hood and Gilles MacKinnon) and a Q&A with the hugely talented David MacKenzie, director of Young Adam and Hallam Foe. My old friend Danny Wallace is compering the main stage, upon which Michelle McManus will perform! Crazy!

Not Going Out pulled forward!

NOT GOING OUT: the press release

The Royal Television Society and Golden Rose award-winning sitcom returns to BBC ONE for an extended second series from Friday, September 7. Meet Lee (played by LEE MACK), a man who has a problem. His flatmate Kate has moved out for good and his best mate and landlord, Tim (fellow BAFTA Award winner and stand-up, TIM VINE), has put the apartment up for sale ...

Faced with the prospect of losing the flat, not to mention his well-meaning but utterly useless cleaner Barbara (MIRANDA HART, Hyperdrive, Lead Balloon), Lee rents the spare room to Tim's ambitious younger sister Lucy (SALLY BRETTON, The Office and Green Wing). The arrangement turns out to be far from perfect however with high-flyer Lucy taking on Lee in a bidding war for the flat.

Sibling rivalry turns into full-on anxiety as uptight accountant Tim quickly becomes suspicious of Lee's influence on his kid sister. To top it all, Lee starts to seriously question the suitability of Lucy's new boyfriend (SIMON DUTTON, The Saint and Holby City).

Still unburdened by ambition or drive – although now the proud owner of an ice-cream van – Lee finds his plans for keeping the flat are not plain sailing. On the plus side, his new domestic set-up does lead him to discover the art world, the underworld, and the lengths one man will go for tickets to an England football match…

An acclaimed live performer (with extension dates added to his 2006 sell-out tour from 2nd November and a first live DVD released on the 26th November 2007), television audiences will know LEE from Would I Lie To You? (BBC ONE) where he is a resident team captain. LEE was a key performer in the BAFTA Award winning The Sketch Show (ITV1), which ran for two series; he then worked alongside KELSEY GRAMMER in an American version of The Sketch Show; he wrote and starred in two series of the Sony Radio Award nominated, The Lee Mack Show (BBC Radio 2); hosted They Think It's All Over (BBC ONE); and headlined on Jack Dee Live at the Apollo (BBC ONE). In 2005 LEE won the Best Stand-Up award at the Loaded LAFTAS. He has also previously received a nomination for the Perrier Award, and won a Time Out Best Live Comedy Award.

Not Going Out Series 2 – BBC ONE for 7 weeks from Friday 7th September

Front Row, R4, last night

A humorous column (or that's what they asked for anyway) I wrote and performed about punctuation in pop music was aired last night on Front Row. It's on Listen Again and will be for a week: it's the show dated Monday August 13, and although my column doesn't appear in the listings for that show, it is on, at the end, about five minutes from the end.

YouTube discovery

I had no idea it was there, but someone has posted the BBC4 documentary I presented, Creating Life On Mars, on YouTube. I loved making this, as I got to drive a Fort Cortina into shot (the squealing tyre shots were done by an expert, and the owner of the car, who I seem to recall was called Wayne), and park it outside a Bristol pub, while the traffic was held up by a production assistant in a high-vis tabard. By the way, my pint at the pub table was a prop. I drank water. And the smoke was, yes, made by a smoke machine. This was a year before the smoke machine ban.

Part 1


Part 2