Tonight's Live At The Apollo had Lenny Henry as the compere and doing a good job of it as well.
As you'd expect there were plenty of music related gags including some hilarious ones about X Factor sob stories and an amusing impersonation of Adele.
The other comedians included Andy Parsons who made some brilliant and very relevant jokes about the BBC's prank phone calls, and there was also Ed Byrne who wasn't as good but made a few funny gags about being on the wrong side of an argument by not having children to prove your point.
In the audience this week were former Atomic Kitten Liz McClarnon, Lemar, Tommy Walsh, Rowland Rivron, and Craig Revel Horwood who was sat in front of Strictly competitor Don Warrington from the last series.
I'm starting to come to the point of enjoying the programme more than Jonathan Ross in the same timeslot although next week is the last show before the long awaited return. The comedians taking part will be Russell Howard and Jo Brand. 1 out of 2 ain't bad then.
I really wish I'd watched the last series broadcast on Monday nights around the same time in late 2007 as it would have made me a hell of a lot happier or provided me with more laughs at a time when they were much needed.
Earlier on I made a start on viewing the first of many VHS's, this one dating back to Saturday the 3rd of July 2004 which was a key night for a significant and an insignificant reason.
The latter being the first episode of the disastrous "Passport To Paradise" with
Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen and from the moment they came on singing the theme tune you could tell it was a disaster from the word go. A partnership that worked brilliantly in the mornings at a house on Lock Keepers Cottages, didn't necessarily work as well in front of a live studio audience and most of the features were very flat and unmemorable.
The worst of them being "Face Fits" which was a contest involving lookalikes which the studio audience had to decide the best. The only problem being was where does the viewer come in, in terms of entertainment? A question that applies to many a show on Smoke, although most of those guilty aren't on the air anymore.
The show was produced by Celador and like most of their shows, it's theme tune was composed by Keith Strachan whose song was very similar to the swing standard "Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week" later performed by Bruce Forsyth on the second series final of Strictly Come Dancing. As well as being attempted by Jonathan Ross on his chat show to amusing results.
Which leads onto the Grand Final of series 1 which followed on immediately from the show and it's worth noting minor changes that have been made since the series. One of them being the theme tune sounding slower than it does now (and with real instruments), and another being that the house band was lead by Laurie Holloway who did the same job on Parkinson and has the "honour" of composing the theme to Blind Date in the UK.
It's also worth noting that Arlene Phillips looked dreadfully botoxed and Len Goodman's hair wasn't as grey as it is now.
The final itself was between Natasha Kaplinsky and Christopher Parker from Eastenders and the actor who played Spencer Moon was in a for a lot of ribbing from the judges which wasn't really that fair.
Len gave out two sevens during the show but oddly enough he didn't announce the score as "SeVEN!".
They also didn't finish the programme with the line "Keeep Dancing!" instead going for Bruce's old endline from the Generation Game, "Be There!".
The only thing I wouldn't have liked to have been changed in the later series was Bruce telling a joke after a couple had been interrogated by the judges and before they recieved their scores.
However the judges themselves were more or less the same as they've always been, Tess Daly still came across as gormless, and the winners trophy was in the shape of a dodgy looking glitterball.
Amongst those in the audience were Dermot Murnaghan supporting then co-host Natasha, Adam Woodyatt and Hilda Braid (Nana Moon) supporting Christopher, Tess's husband Vernon Kay, and Angela Rippon who always appears in the audience at least once a series but has never taken part in it herself. Are her legs more frail than they were with Morecambe and Wise 33 years ago?
It's worth preserving these programmes as it's interesting to look back at how they've evolved over the years although watching a live episode of the X Factor with the ever wooden Kate Thornton may be a slightly different experience. I now tend to see it overall as Dermot's show so that proves how good she was.
In addition to that I dug up an episode of South Park from Series 1, "Mecha-Streisand" which involved a Barbara Streisand caricature turning into an evil robot.
Whilst a lot of celebrities get picked on in the show, Matt and Trey have said many times that the only celebrity they really hate is Barbara Streisand and with the exception of her song from "A Star Is Born" I can't disagree.
The plot involves the boys finding a weird shaped arrowhead on an archaeolgy field trip which happens to be the triangle of Zynphar allowing Barbara who already owns one of them to turn into Mecha-Streisand. Cartman develops the technique of "Roshambo" which involves kicking someone in the balls so they will give into something.
This reminds me of when "Living La Vida Loca" came out a year later and the line
"She'll push and pull you down" which I thought was "She'll Roshambo you down".
The episode is notable for a guest appearance by the real Robert Smith from The Cure who gets a lot of appreciation from the main characters despite them only being 8 years old.
They're another band who I've developed a liking for whilst I've been at University, partly through the film "Starter For 10" which featured the song "Boys Don't Cry" and hearing their greatest hits album being played on a drunken night in The Junction earlier this year.
Not to mention that superb mash up of "Close To Me" with the acapella of Missy Elliot's "Get Ur Freak On".
Phil Harris had that on a CD with a cracking remix of Jazztronik's "Bra Step" which I may ask him to lend me as it's one of the only Jazztronik tracks I don't have.
I need to play them on the show sometime although they're a favourite of Jonny Wei's on his Decompression Show as well.
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