The latest series of Genius is available on BBC Audiobook, and sees Dave Gorman and celebrity guests including Chris Addison, Armando Iannucci and Brian Sewell chew over ridiculous, unworkable but sometimes genius inventions, schemes and policies of the public.
Genius invites listeners to air those incredible concepts that strike you just before falling into a nice sleep or after one-too-many drinks at the pub- not necessarily ideas that are worthy or even very well thought through but have a hint of genius such as selling Bovril as a fizzy drink, breathalysers on your mobile phone to stop you from making regrettable calls and running the House of Commons by the rules of Just A Minute.

This last one is particularly excellent, and I think the most likely to be integrated; as far as I can tell, current House of Commons rules make as much sense as Mornington Crescent.

Genius 2 will be available from all good bookshops, online at www.bbcshop.com or by BBC Audiobooks direct mail on 0800 136 919.

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There’s little better time to start the Quintessential Comedy blog than on a Saturday night.

In recent times we’ve been spoilt for choice comedy wise, whether family friendly stuff like Harry Hill’s TV Burp or the mixed but generally fun to watch Thank God You’re Here, or repeats of Have I Got News For You, Saturday evening comedy entertainment is light years ahead of what we have had during any period over the last 20 odd years.

My personal favourite – despite a fondness for anything Paul Merton does – is Harry Hill’s TV Burp. On a weekly basis Hill deconstructs and even takes part in some of the most notorious and most popular television shows, often focussing on the bizarre (“Freaky Eaters”) and the ridiculous (bonkers astrologer to the stars lady whose name I will remember after watching tonight).

In recent weeks we’ve seen Hill poke fun at Hugh Fearnley Whittinstall and his campaign to rid the world of battery farming (which, as I have since found out, does not involve a battery-induced electric shock to coerce the hens into laying eggs…) and incorporate film of Jamie Oliver bashing up some biscuits into his own mini routine of having lost his glasses.

It’s all done gently and with genuine warmth, and puts Harry Hill in an unenviable position – “superstars” like Gervais, Brand and the Carrs can only dream of audience figures like TV Burp gets.

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