A critical view

"Back of the net!" "Kiss my face!" "Jurassic Park!" The disclosure by comedy writer Armando Iannucci that Alan Partridge is finally to have his own film shot later this year prompted a wave of triumphant Partridgeisms.

Writer Armando Iannucci reveals DJ's return

The return of Mad Men this week should have left White Heat badly exposed, although the scale (if not the ambition) of the two dramas is so unequal as to make comparison almost meaningless. For a start, Mad Men has advanced a mere six years in more than 50 hours of television, a luxurious pace that has been able to absorb social change incrementally, while White Heat has so far encompassed 14 particularly tumultuous years in just four hours – a sort of Reduced Shakespeare Company approach to British post-war history – feminism, race relations, Irish nationalism, gay liberation and the implosion of the left (abridged).

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has been given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against orders that he cannot rely on privilege against self-incrimination in the phone-hacking proceedings.

It is not hard to understand why many of the celebrities and politicians who had their phones hacked by journalists from News International have accepted out-of-court damages payments from Rupert Murdoch. It has saved them the time, money and stress that would have been involved in court hearings, from which details – lurid or otherwise – would have been laid bare for all to read.

I was amused to see a credit for an Etiquette Consultant in the programme for the National Theatre's new She Stoops to Conquer.

For publishers, the big comedy Christmas book is central to the festive season – as familiar as cold turkey or an unwelcome visit from an annoying relative. Trouble is, most publishers are pretty useless at predicting smash hits.

The private detective at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, Glenn Mulcaire, has revealed the names of the staff at the News of the World who instructed him to carry out the hacking.

As the latest Ricky Gervais mockumentary approaches, key players in TV comedy tell Gerard Gilbert why British shows lost their mass appeal and how they aim to regain it

Bard of the bath is making a big splash

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's TV comedy travelogue has made stars of the bickering duo, says Sarah Hughes

While I was taught from an early age to show proper respect to the confused and the elderly, the sight of a beaming Rupert Murdoch proudly clad in his shorts this week made me think more Mr Burns from The Simpsons than all-powerful head of a morally bankrupt media empire.

Following on from its partnership with Steve Coogan, which produced some acclaimed internet shorts featuring Alan Partridge, corporate comedy sponsor Foster's is about to unleash Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's Afternoon Delights on the web.