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Jocelyn Jee Esien writes...

After weeks of creating three new characters, five weeks of filming in New Zealand and weeks of editing, my show is finally on air. I feel like I’ve been pregnant for 10 months and have finally given birth! I'm very happy and extremely excited about this show as it’s been quite life changing for me. I’ve put my heart and soul into it and really hope people like it!

It’s a stunt show that follows three new characters:

Titchy: the hermaphrodite rapper

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Didio Amabo: a member of the Zimbabwe Women’s Social party

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Pammi Du Vois: wannabe actress/singer/dancer/presenter and socialite.

Every episode features a Titchy music video and I’m absolutely ecstatic one of them is a duet with Boy George.

I’d just like to say that New Zealand is an amazing country, really beautiful. The whole crew worked very hard, but it was all a lot of fun - we practically toured the whole country, covering 6000 miles in 5 weeks! We had a small crew and we drove around in a camper van. As its population is quite compact and my characters stand out, I basically spent the whole time in character, so "Jocelyn" has never actually seen New Zealand!

I don't have a script, I just think of what I'd like to do/say and literally go and do it. It always changes, as the person I'm doing the stunt with usually takes it some where else. I like this as it feels more like a sketch, as opposed to a stunt.

My aim is never to make people look stupid; I'd rather that we ALL have fun and MY characters look a bit silly. Most of the time people really enjoy meeting the characters and I have to run away from THEM!

True story: Titchy was mobbed! I think because he/she is dressed in silver so looks shiny, people flocked to him/her like magpies. They actually thought I was Dizzee Rascal because they only know a few rappers. So they were calling "Dizzee, Dizzee!" But when I turned, they realised - and I said I was Titchy. They then said Tinchy Stryder, so I said yes... and ran away!

We didn’t upset too many people (just a few) and they’ve actually asked me to go back and do a stand up tour!

That’s it for now, but please leave me your questions (nice ones!!).

One Non Blonde continues tonight at 11.55pm on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Three

As promised, here's today's second Have I Got News For You picture gag.

I do hope we aren't spoiling you...

Read on to see it!

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This is our first Have I Got News For You picture gag of the day, so if you want to be first to see the next, don't touch that dial.

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For now, read on to see more from Mr Miliband. But which one?

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Are you ready for a freshly laid topical picture gag from the Have I Got News For You team?

Of course you are!

Read on to see it...

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Our News Quiz insider writes...

After a long summer break, The News Quiz returns to Radio 4 this evening at 6.30pm, with the teams of Jeremy Hardy & Sue Perkins versus Gyles Brandreth & Mark Steel slogging it out to discover who is best at doing jokes about things that have happened in this week's news. All hosted, as ever, by the inimitable Sandi Toksvig.

Listen to the panel discussing the Lib Dem conference:

And we're on the lookout for amusing cuttings spotted by listeners, like these ones sent in by Jeremy McNeill and Laurence Ingram:

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If you've seen something, then email it to news.quiz@bbc.co.uk or send it via the News Quiz page on the Radio 4 website.

The new series of The News Quiz starts on Radio 4 at 6.30pm on Friday 24th September, and will be available for download as a podcast.

This Have I Got News For You picture gag comes in the midst of a big week of News Events. Is the silly season finally over?

Read on to find out...

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Whites is a brand new series set in the kitchen of a country house hotel, following the trials and tribulations of head chef Roland White and his long suffering sous chef Bib.

Oliver Lansley, describes how, with co-writer Matt King, the idea for the show came together...

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Oliver Lansley writes

So here we are, at the end of a very long and eventful journey awaiting the transmission of episode one of ‘Whites’ on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ 2. Matt and I started working properly on Whites about four years ago, though in many ways it’s been a much longer journey than that for both of us. For starters Matt worked as a chef for many years in a place not so dissimilar to the fictional Thaxted Manor which features in the series (I was a waiter in another similar place, though that's not nearly so impressive!)

We met working on a channel 4 comedy lab and after a brief conversation about ‘maybe trying to write something together’ we almost immediately began working on ‘Whites’, and four years, a treatment,Ìý a taster, aÌý pilot and about a billion scripts later, here we are. Exciting...and terrifying!

If you’re reading this you’ve probably gathered that Whites is a show set in a kitchen revolving around its head chef Roland White. However although we were at great pains to make the cooking action authentic and real (We even roped in Matt’s former sous Chef –Andrew Turner - Now head Chef at Wilton’s, as our chef consultant) to us the show was always much more about the characters and their relationships. We’ve been incredibly lucky to have assembled such a brilliant cast and we had an absolutely fantastic time holed up in Cardiff together for six weeks filming the show, so we hope that some of that shines through on screen.

Although it’s tempting to write a lot of pretentious writer stuff about the process of creating the show I think it’s probably best to just let you watch it and make up your minds for yourself, so here you go...we hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.

On day one of filming Matt and I were given video camera and told to film some ‘interesting behind the scenes footage’ - six weeks later and the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ now have hours and hours of videos of us and the cast ‘dicking about’ - however after scouring the footage the Beeb have put together a few clips which will hopefully give you a little insight into what the making of Whites was like.

This first clip is from the first day of filming when Matt and I came on set and got to see ‘The White House’ restaurant and kitchen for the first time. An incredible experience, walking into what is basically a huge aircraft hanger, going through a door and then suddenly finding yourself inside a kitchen that you invented in your mind, months, even years ago... very surreal!

We ended up spending a lot of time in that studio/kitchen and it really is in many ways another character in the series, it’s the beating heart of the show and it was really exciting to see it come to life....

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Tomorrow night, Michael McIntyre is taking his Comedy Roadshow to the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, and local favourite is headlining.

We caught up with Kevin and asked him a few questions...

Comedy Blog: If the Roadshow could go anywhere in the world where would you like it to be, and why?

Kevin Bridges: The road on which i live, i'd like the comedy roadshow to come to my road. I have loads of observations and anecdotes about my road.

Comedy Blog: Where in the UK have been your best and worst gigs?

Kevin Bridges: I've had good nights and bad nights in every city in the UK i'd say. I died on my arse in a bingo hall in Country Durham when I was eighteen, that sort of knocked me for a while, then I realised that it was a gig in a bingo hall in County Durham and that maybe it wasn't all my fault. London is brilliant for the amount of gigs you can do in one night, I've had the best and worst gigs of my life within twenty minutes of each other - in the same pub. Coming home and performing in Glasgow is always special for me as well.

Comedy Blog:Ìý Which stand-up comedian, living or dead, would you most like to see on the Roadshow?

Kevin Bridges: I suppose thats just like asking who my favourite comedians, living or dead are, Billy Connolly, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Louis CK - the rest of my favourite stand ups have been on the roadshow.

Comedy Blog:Ìý Who's the most famous person you’re friends with on Facebook, or follows you on Twitter?

Kevin Bridges: I deleted my facebook. I had 5000 friends and that is apparently the maximum. I completed Facebook. I don't know who follows me on Twitter.

Comedy Blog: Which website do you really love, apart from Facebook or Twitter?

Kevin Bridges: I think love is a strong word for Facebook and Twitter. I'm a big football fan so I like and Amazon is good for wasting money on shite you don't need

Comedy Blog: What are you doing next?

Kevin Bridges: DVD out 22nd November, touring pretty much until then and a few nights afterwards. I have my first solo show in the Hammersmith Apollo on November 10th which is probably the biggest thing coming up live wise.Ìý

Comedy Blog: What comedy project would you do if money was no object?

Kevin Bridges: I'd perform a one off gig, to the whole world. In the generation of comedians selling out theatres, arenas and stadiums it would be great to sell out The World. Then I'd add a second night.

Comedy Blog: What do you see as the future of comedy?

Kevin Bridges: The present. Comedy is all about the moment. Good answer, eh?

Comedy Blog: JLS have recently launched their own condoms. What merchandising would you like to see with your name on it?

Kevin Bridges: A JLS condom, with my name on it.

Comedy Blog: What question would you like to be asked, that no one has ever asked you?

Kevin Bridges: This question has blown my mind. I've spent too long thinking about it. I'm sorry.

And here's a clip of Kevin doing what he does on stage in Glasgow.

Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, Saturdays at 9.15pm on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ One.

I almost fell off my limited edition Top Gear beanbag (the one in the shape of the Stig's helmet) earlier this week when I learned that my old nemesis - His Holy Fountain Pen Head - was planning a visit to our native soil.

Catherine was clearly trying to keep news of his Eminence's imminence from me, I assume from fear of a king-sized tantrum. In fact, she almost got away with it until I caught her burying newspapers in the back garden and she 'fessed up.

Don't get me wrong, if the Pope wants to take himself off on a European mini-break, then that's his business. But there are certain protocols to be adhered to when one head of state visits another. A polite email requesting safe passage or at the very least a quick heads-up on Facebook chat would have done the job but no, I didn't hear a single Papal peep.

So as I sat in front of the television watching his plane touch down yesterday, I was filled with a mixture of anger and, well, more anger. And when the cabin door opened and he appeared - looking like a last-minute extra from a rubbish nativity play - it was all I could do to stop myself throwing my entire tub of chocolate-covered flapjack squares at the screen.

What on earth does he think he's playing at? We settled the battle of the churches years ago and mine won, simple as. But if he wants a second dose of the same medicine then I'm very happy to open up another can of CofE-shaped whoop-arse.

So I've challenged him to a "prayer off" this evening at Westminster Abbey to decide matters once and for all. I'm sending my top ecumenical hard man - the Archbishop of Canterbury - a man whose beard rivals even mine in terms of untamed bushiness. I don't expect the whole business to take very long - "Rowdy" Rowan is unbeaten in the pulpit.

But despite our many differences (the main one being that I'm brilliant and he's completely rubbish) the one thing old Popeface and I do have in common is that we both like to surround ourselves with exquisite things. And I'm not talking about motoring-themed arse furniture here, I'm talking about art.

I first became properly interested in art after agreeing to marry one of my wives (I forget which) on the basis of a portrait, only to later discover that in the flesh she was a right old minger. But if a humble painter's brush could transform a bruiser into a babe, I could only imagine its power in the hands of a true Renaissance man such as myself.

So I worked hard until I had mastered all the major forms - oil, watercolour, charcoal, felt-tip, crayon, etc. But it wasn't until I discovered Photoshop that I felt I was able to fully express myself artistically.

And so here is an example of my work. Like most great art it has a religious theme. The original is hanging in our downstairs toilet. I hope it moves you in the same way that it regularly moves me.

Henry 8.0 will be following the rest of the Pope's visit on and , in search of further artistic inspiration...

Pope and Glory

Stuart Ashen, that bloke off the internet who sounds a bit like his nose is blocked, writes...

Hello! I'm Stuart Ashen, that bloke off the internet who sounds a bit like his nose is blocked.

I recently had the honour of featuring forgotten eighties cartoon Bo-Starr and the Champions of Galastrom on my show Ashen's Tech Dump.Ìý As you've no doubt viewed the episode multiple times already and told all your friends about it, you may have developed an interest in old cartoons which failed miserably.Ìý So, as a special treat, I've listed some other unsuccessful animated franchises below.Ìý Feel free to use this information to make yourself sound clever during nostalgia-themed conversations down the pub.

Verse Masters
A high-concept "edutainment" cartoon, Verse Masters featured two opposing factions of giant robots who battled by reciting poems at each other.Ìý This proved immensely unpopular with children, possibly due to the show almost exclusively featuring obscure 19th Century lyric poetry.

The producers braced themselves for a backlash of negative feedback from bored kids, but most complaints received were actually from confused parents angry that most of the poems didn't rhyme.Ìý Upon learning of this the despondent script writers threw themselves off a cliff.

Snufflors XTREME!
'The Snufflors' was a series of Swedish children's books, beloved in their native country for their gentle humour and positive outlook.Ìý In the late seventies an animated series was produced which carefully retained the warm charm of the original material.

In 1985 the series was picked up by an American conglomerate who decided that it was too tame to make them any serious money.Ìý They created Snufflors XTREME! by mixing the original footage with explosions and long explanatory sequences delivered by a cute robot in a space station.Ìý It was a complete flop, and the original Swedish creators went on to make millions by releasing a translated version of the earlier series on DVD.

Give-us-all-your-parents-money-bots
Originally conceived by comedian Rob Frener as a spoof idea for a Candid Camera-style show, Give-us-all-your-parents-money-bots was pitched to a real studio executive who was filmed with a secret camera.Ìý Frener hadn't banked on the executive having no sense of irony or proportion, and rather than getting the amusing rebuff he expected the cartoon was actually green-lit for a 28 episode series.

Frener decided to use the opportunity to create a scathingly satirical show which poked fun at not only the conventions of contemporary children's television, but at consumer culture as a whole.Ìý But then he realised that would be a lot of hard work so he made another hidden camera show based around public lavatories.

The Exorcist Adventures
Riding on the craze of kid's cartoons based on adult films started by Rambo and the Forces of Freedom and Robocop: The Animated Series, the rights were purchased for seminal seventies horror The Exorcist.Ìý Pre-production documentation shows that the plot revolved around the possessed girl Regan travelling across America and solving problems with her kooky demonic powers.
The series never made it past the planning stage, as the production team were lynched by everyone in the entire world.

Vinnie Vole's Existential Nightmares
A spin-off of the similarly-titled computer game, little is known about this early eighties British animation.Ìý Supposedly based on stories concocted by a group of depressed philosophy teachers and an escaped Armenian mental patient, the planned series was to feature the eponymous Vole suffering in despair through various metaphysical tortures designed to provoke the primal fear of death itself.

Two pilot episodes were produced for the benefit of the show's potential sponsors. The screening had to be cut short halfway through the first episode when several people present collapsed in hysterical distress. Ambulances were called, and the films were sealed inside a lead case and stored in that huge warehouse you see at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Look out for more new Tech Dump next week. In the meantime, here's more from Ashens on the blog.

Hey Pop Quiz Fans! Have you ever wanted to ask Phill and Noel a question that they can answer in a contractually obliged, shortform, format? No? Neither did we...until now!

So whether you want to know the best way to wind up Bono, the worst thing to do at a gig or you're just itching to find out which of them is better at badminton, send us your questions now.

The best ones will be tackled head-on by our team captains, so if you really think these two strange men are the best people to deal with your burning issues, then I suppose that's up to you isn't it?

You can ask your questions in a variety of ways on a variety of platforms.

On Twitter, you can tweet your questions to using the hashtag #BuzzcocksQT.

Our favourite tweet so far:Ìý - Top 3 eyebrows in music.Ìý#BuzzcocksQT.

You can post questions on our page.

Our favourite comment so far: Luke Jerromes - Which one of the Spice Girls would have survived longest in a Zombie Uprising?

And, of course, just leave comments below and we'll put them in the Buzzcocks bucket for consideration.

Thanks and good luck!

Please Note: Ìýwhen contributing to thisÌýpost that your comments and username may be used on theÌýNever Mind The Buzzcocks Red Button programme and the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Comedy website.

The amazing Dave Gorman is back with a brand new series of Genius and we've got a few exclusive web goodies for you. First off we have an introduction from Dave himself, there's a revealing behind the scenes video and best of all - an interactive series of videos on youtube called .

Dave Gorman writes:

Hello there. I'm very excited to say that Genius is coming back to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½2. Sort of. I say sort of because it's not really the same show. This is Genius Mark II. It's bigger, sillier and - dare I say it - better.

In series one we used to have 4 or 5 punters on each show. With series two we've loosened things up. Each episode has a forum of 70 people who've all got ideas and can all get involved. It used to be that I knew every idea coming and we'd built a prop for all of them. That gave us some great moments but - and I'm being honest here - it also meant it could get a bit predictable at times.

So instead of filtering through every idea sent and choosing a handful in advance, this time we've packed the studio full of people who've got ideas. It means I don't always know what's coming up and nor do the guests. (Oh yeah... that's another change, this time we've got two guests each episode instead of one).

Genius Behind the Scenes video:

I've still got a couple of things up my sleeve in each show, but mostly it's a free for all. The guests can choose to run with an idea or dismiss it out of hand if they like because there's always another idea just around the corner.

And what a dazzling array of genius guests we have for series two. Russell Howard, Hazel Irvine, The Hairy Bikers, Jane Moore, Vanessa Feltz, Richard Herring, Chris Addison, Mel Giedroyc, Tim Minchin, Alexei Sayle, Shappi Khorsandi and Noddy Holder... to name just 12. or 13. There are tow Hairy Bikers after all. But they think with one mind. Anyway...that's all of them. (which is all of them).

We've made it much easier for people to get involved with the show too. As well as our website, bbc.co.uk/genius, there's a facebook group, and a twitter feed . All have been fantastic at getting people to submit more drawings, more videos and bringing more prototypes of their own to the recordings.

We've put some of the videos we received into a so you can have a play around and see some of the ideas generated by the very fertile brains of the Genius audience right now. There's also a little look behind the scenes for you to look at and there'll be loads more exclusive online content for you in the coming weeks, so do pop back and see what's going on.

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Oh... and do tune in. If rational ideas like "The cat-shaped cat flap", "edible sticky tape" and "A wasp in every car to keep drivers alert" grab you then Genius is the show to watch. 10pm. Mondays. Starting September 27th. ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½2. Go on... it's Genius!

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Did you enjoy watching Ideal in 360 degrees but were still left wanting more? As well as being able to spin the camera in all directions, did you wish you could make time pass quickly so you can see the hustle and bustle of a busy TV studio in speeded up motion?

Now you can! Harnessing the same advanced technology as before we can now show you quite how many people there are behind the scenes, most of whom appear to be doing nothing, but are in fact working incredibly hard to make fantastic comedy. Here you go:

You can catch up on all of the new series of Ideal on iPlayer.

Ideal continues on Tuesdays at 10.30pm on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Three.

Do you enjoy watching Ideal but get the feeling you might be missing something? Do you ever yearn to spin the camera round or suddenly make it point at the ceiling in the middle of a scene for no particular reason?

Now you can! Using some of the most advanced technology imaginable we can now offer an interactive 360 degree view of one of the scenes from the show as it was being filmed. Find out once and for all what happens behind the camera. Click below to give it whirl:

Now you've watched from the set as the scene was filmed, why not ?

The new series of Ideal continues on Tuesdays at 10.30pm on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Three.

Today, Have I Got News For You's picture gag concerns a certain papal visit.

Read on to see it!

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As I hope you've noticed, we recently undertook the challenge of filming four nights of live comedy at the Edinburgh festival and rapidly publishing a section of each act to the web. This meant that everyone who wasn't there - which, it turns out, is the majority of people - can still get to enjoy it.

But: did you also notice that our videos popped up in a few other places? Look! Here's Imran Yusuf on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½2's Review Show:




And here's our clip of internet favourite Bo Burnham being cued up by Huw Edwards on the Ten O Clock News!


Bo's video also made it on to a Japanese site called which I very much hope is a reference to one of my favourite League of Gentlemen sketches.

Have you spotted our comedy videos in an unusual place? Let us know! And were you aware that you can embed them in your own site? Just click on the embed button and copy and paste the code into your website or blog.

Today's Have I Got News For You picture gag responds to breaking news in the USA about a new toxic disaster.

Read on to see it!

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Time for more Have I Got News For You photo fun. Did you know you can enjoy a gallery of recent HIGNFY picture gags on the go, via the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Comedy mobile site? Visit bbc.co.uk/mobile/comedy on your mobile device.

But now... read on for today's gag!

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Beth Kilcoyne, co-writer of Roger and Val have Just Got In, writes...

"It can't just be about curtain hooks. What do they slam the door against and what's already in the house that they can't escape?" This was the question posed to [co-writer] Emma and me in the first meeting with our then-potential script editor, Hugo Blick - the genius behind such works as Marion & Geoff, Up In Town and Sensitive Skin. I looked down at the script on the table before me, a script gladly praised as funny by all who had read it, but it certainly depicted a happy couple getting in from work and mined its comedy from situation and silliness.

"What do you think it should be about?" I managed to stutter in reply.

It had already been very difficult to write a comedy about "a happy couple in real time getting in from work". Before this meeting I thought we had done well, because starting a script with that requirement is like carving a cave into a blank face of rock. But it wasn't good enough.Ìý He was right. In fact a common note of caution among some of the early reviewers of the show (who had perhaps missed the little painted chair at the end of Episode One) was "but is a gentle comedy about getting in enough to sustain a whole series?" No. It isn't.

It was Hugo Blick who encouraged and dared us to set Roger and Val Stevenson's life in the context of tragedy and to therefore deploy the concept of seeing them intimately at home to answer that ultimate question: why go on?

Losing a child is the worst thing in the world that can happen to a person. It hasn't happened to me and we would have had no moral authority to write about it had it not been for a friend of ours who had recently lost her own much-loved baby girl. The question had already been begged by the format of the scripts: why did Roger and Val never mention any children? One of the explanations for this could be that they had lost a child, but I was frightened - and if I'm honest, horrified - at the thought of examining the subject. It is where no one wants to go.

I told our friend that it had been suggested, and I will never forget her reply: "I absolutely dare you to write this series to show that where there is love, there is hope." That's when I said yes, and throughout the writing process our brave (and very clever, by the way!) friend collaborated with Emma and me; there is no emotion around the subject of loss that didn't come from her. We didn't extrapolate and we didn't presume; we reflected.

Yes it would've been much easier to write a happy series about happy people getting their curtain hooks mixed up with easy-cook noodles. But life unfortunately is not Disney and if you're going to go for some sort of answer to it, you have to look beyond curtain hooks.

We have tried to do so by writing Roger and Val as a comedy, because as a man almost as insightful as my friend once said, "Laughter is the one true metaphysical consolation."Ìý Episode Six we hope, happily, proves this.

Beth Kilcoyne wrote Roger and Val Have Just Got In with her sister Emma. Catch it on Fridays at 10pm on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Two. Read more of Beth's blog posts in the archive.

Here it is - the first picture from Matt Lucas and David Walliams' new comedy show, Come Fly With Me! The show starts later this year... watch this space for more news. Until then, why not check-in?

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