My parents were ... compassionate, liberal. My father worked for IBM. My mother raised us kids. There were six of us, and a couple of extra foster kids at any given time.

As a blockbuster that's intended to turn history into, like, fun for kids, this is not as irksome as Nicolas Cage's two National Treasure movies.

Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller's Vietnam-film-within-a-film, has a lot of gags to get through in its two-hour running time – the self-regard of actors; the greed and ruthlessness of Hollywood producers; a raft of 'Nam movie clichés – and yet it still seems at least 20 minutes too long, with all the best jokes used up in the first act (including a terrific trio of spoof trailers).

The Day Today opens with some wonderfully glossy computer graphics and one of those pompous current-affairs soundtracks – all sforzando brass chords and urgent percussion. It's the real thing, at least until the final seconds, when it suddenly dawns on you that the computer effects have got a little frantic, that the music's final bars are perhaps a little overwrought in their search for a punching climax. Not much respect here for those national institutions The Nine O'Clock News and Newsnight. Not much respect either for Elvis Presley, government ministers, the Church of England, Prince Charles, good taste and unsuspecting members of the public, but above all for television itself, which is the real object of The Day Today's scorn. It's very cynical, very clever and very funny.

Steve Coogan remains an enigma.

In times of economic depression people have often turned to cabaret to take their minds off their woes.

"Ben Stiller's performance is easily the weakest element: like his 'Zoolander' character, he has a handful of exaggerated expressions and cycles through them on cue. But it's easy to forgive, given how thoroughly enjoyable 'Tropic Thunder' is on virtually every other count." - Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com

A-ha! For the first time since being condemned by Norfolk's civic leaders for presenting their denizens as inbreeding berks, comic star Steve Coogan is to return to the city to perform.

For those who know Tim Vine as a comedy-circuit regular, or from ITV's The Sketch Show, which boasted Steve Coogan and Ricky Gervais among its production credits, the idea of him holding his own for an hour on stage might seem unlikely, risky even.