THE EYE ON...COMEDY

Jack Dee is at Epsom Playhouse (01372 742555) tomorrow; Redhill Harlequin Theatre (01737 765547) Mon; Maidstone Hazlitt Theatre (01622 758611) Tue & Wed; Hayes Beck Theatre (0181-561 8371) Thur. Tour info freephone: 0891-455488

It was the sitcom just waiting to happen; a 1970s period comedy called The Grimleys. Starring alongside Noddy Holder (inspired casting, that) in Granada's new series for broadcast in the spring is Jack Dee. He is also preparing a new run of his ITV variety show. But, of course, he has only reached this exalted position of being able to pick and choose his TV projects because of his live work - no stand- up show, no television show. So it's good to see him now returning to the road with a lengthy national tour, running until April.

His act still leans heavily on the misanthropic demeanour that serves him so well in those lucrative beer commercials. But he has never been an "angry young man" railing against the Establishment. From his first outings as a stand-up (when he was moonlighting from a job in a restaurant), Dee always had a timeless, mainstream appeal. Wearing a suit was a (very successful) way of differentiating himself. "I always found myself on the fringe of the alternative movement," he tells me. "Right from the early days, I aligned myself more with the audience - people who'd come in from work to see a show - than with these comedians wearing campaign T-shirts and doing `down with Thatcher' stuff. The audience could see I had a shared experience with them." And - as his popularity proves - they still do.

EYE ON THE NEW

Bill Bailey has been given the double accolade by this newspaper of "bearded wonder" and "keyboard wizard". The Perrier Award-nominated comedian takes his quirky, musical parody show on the road, starting tonight at King's Lynn Arts Centre (01553 773578)