When it comes to adding orchestral punch to their sound, pop acts know Jules Buckley is their go-to man, says Emma Love

There are voices out there which traditional media neglect through their age, ethnicity, culture, sexuality

"It's not overlong, it's value for money!" exclaimed Robin Ince at the end of the second night of his third series of seasonal rationalist jamborees, celebrations that are akin to the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures with jingle bells on.

Ryan Dunn was one of the original member of the Jackass crew that became a global phenomenon with their perilous stunts and vulgar gags.

Ruby Wax rose to fame by making an exhibition of exhibitionists, mugging at the camera behind the backs of celebrities and mocking their self-involved lack of circumspection.

The comedian who headbutted an audience member at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August has been fined £600 after he admitted assault.

Misfits doesn't promise much: a bunch of community service teens get struck by lightning thereby developing superpowers. We've heard it all before, haven't we, thanks to the considerably bigger-budget NBC series, Heroes.

Not only is Rhod Gilbert a fantastic comedian, he's a fantastical one. He lives and dies by weaving a fictional tapestry, the weight of which could drag him under at any moment. Once, his intricate illusion went by the name of the made-up town of Llanbobl, but for the last two years he has asked us to inhabit a new world, one of pain in the face of the trials of everyday existence, the comedy equivalent of Portmeirion in The Prisoner.

Most of my memories of Edinburgh are related to food. After one hard show last year, I was flat and miserable and crying. My boyfriend popped into a chippy we were passing and bought me a bag of chips and two bars of dairy milk. There's a lesson to be learned from Scottish chippies that sell chocolate too.