You can be sure to get some much needed laughs from the Mock The Week episode airing on Monday night.
Dara O Briain and Hugh Dennis feature in a special edition of the topical comedy show featuring seasonal material, fond favourites and previously unseen bits. Here's hoping they weren't originally edited out because they weren't funny enough.
This year has been understandably different, with some of the episodes featuring the comics divided by Covid-compliant perspex screens. It is still, however, showcasing the talents of a lot of new comedians alongside O Briain, Dennis, Ed Byrne and Ed Gamble, Tom Allen, Rhys James, Milton Jones and the bunker-obsessed Angela Barnes. Also featured in the current series are Glenn Moore, Sophie Duker, Eshaan Akbar, Mark Simmons, Nigel Ng and Maisie Adam and debutants including Athena Kugblenu, Michael Odewale, Chris McCausland, Sukh Ojla, Thanyia Moore, Laura Lexx and Catherine Bohart.
Dara O Briain has been on good form so far this year. He talked about working on the show in a recent interview and seems to be enjoying it more now than he was a while ago. In an interview with Jay Rayner for his Out to Lunch podcast O Briain said: "There were many years of Mock the Week that were actually not that fun in some ways. There were very strong personalities who were very staccato. Frankie and Russell (Howard) in particular were very, very good. Frankie in particular had a tendency to kill a topic by bringing it to a brutal end, which people loved, absolutely adored, but it made it more difficult to engender any conversation."
"There were years where it wasn't as much fun as it could have been. I mean, genuinely, I remember sitting down once while one of the rounds was on and with a piece of paper, cause I have nothing to do at that point, writing out the next four years of my career. Going, do I need to tour? Do I need this?"
More recently, however, he has fallen back in love with the enduring show. "It sort of evolved with this generation to a much more conversational show, but it retains a surprising amount of baggage. The only benchmark I can bring to it is that I enjoy significantly more now than I ever did. Partly because this generation I work with are much more conversational, much more collaborative generations."
It also turned out recently that it has a very famous fan, who has been enjoying it in lockdown. In an interview for the Adam Buxton podcast to plug his new album Paul McCartney talked about his TV habits: "I like shows like 'Mock The Week' and 'Have I Got News For You', I like those shows. And I like 'Would I Lie To You?' I think there's some very funny people on that, Lee Mack is a very talented boy. You sit at home with your friends or family and you say, 'He's lying, he's lying!' That's the kind of thing I like."
Mock The Week Christmas Special, Monday, December 21, 10pm, BBC Two. The current series will run until February 2nd 2021.
Pictured - Dara O Briain and Hugh Dennis: BBC/Hat Trick
