The Week in Comedy: Frank Sidebottom, Michael McIntyre & Sarah Millican

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tina Fey is set to land the female lead in the next Muppet movie. Fey would be re-united with Ricky Gervais after the pair starred in The Invention of Lying together.

Michael McIntyre was the world’s best selling live stand-up comedian last year, with approx £21m in ticket sales. That’s a lot of skipping.

Speaking of, er, big numbers, Miranda and Mrs Brown’s Boys attracted over 6.8million viewers each on Monday night.

Filming for Frank, the feature film inspired by Frank Sidebottom [pictured], began in New Mexico this week. Michael Fassbender is playing the lead role.

Josh Widdicombe has signed up to present a three-hour radio radio show on XFM. He said: “It’s nice to finally be offered a job where I don’t have to brush my hair.”

Martin Mor, Patrick Monahan, Ian Cognito and 18 other stand-ups will walk Hadrian’s Wall to raise funds for the Newcastle Healthcare Charity. Read.

In other news, John Bishop’s kids don’t think he’s funny.

Stand-up Seann Walsh is to host a 13-part stand-up series for Comedy Central.

Stewart Lee’s Alternative Comedy Experience will also air on the channel from Tuesday 5 February. The series, which also stars Tony Law and Simon Munnery amongst others, was filmed at The Stand, Edinburgh, last year.

E4 has commissioned a fifth series of Misfits, the comedy drama about a group of offenders with super powers.

Sarah Millican: “I get people saying I’m ‘weirdly sexy.’ Or ‘You’re my secret crush.’ Why secret?! Though it’s nice when blokes fancy me — it means they actually fancy a normal-looking woman. I look a similar shape to somebody you’d bump into in Asda.”

Last but not least, Jim Davidson has been bailed by police investigating the crimes of Jimmy Savile. Davidson said: “The only time I’ve ever abused women is by marrying them.”

That’s all for this week, folks. Check back every Sunday morning for another brief round-up of the week’s paper talk and comedy chatter.