Why is it that everyone who’s even half-recognisable these days has to have their own variation on the chat show? This can range from taking it to unchartered new depths like Craig Doyle – or trying to re-invent it like Matt Lucas.

The kindest thing you could say about The Matt Lucas Awards is that the production team must be in possession of some serious hallucinogenic drugs – because this isn‘t even a good concept, never mind a good show.

The best parts of it are clichéd or stolen from other shows; the setting is supposed to be his flat and the fall guy is in fact his own mother, who is stuck in a small kitchen where her only purpose last week was to pretend not to know that Jordan and Katie Price were one and the same person ... and to feed choc ices to her son.

Lucas, meanwhile, is wearing an Argyle jumper that wouldn’t have been in fashion even when he had hair, and the whole thing looks like it was designed in the dark.

Then there’s the hook, where three guests are invited to nominate their choices for a variety of nonsensical ‘awards’ – like Weirdest Celebrity Crush or Smuggest Nation of People – and Lucas picks the winner of the much-coveted and exquisitely-titled 'Lucas' statue ... a golden miniature naked Matt Lucas.

It is the radio adaptation of the BBC Radio 2 show ‘And The Winner Is...’ in which Matt Lucas and his panel of guests also present awards in unusual categories – but the difference is it’s funny on radio.

Perhaps the problem is best explained by Lucas himself, when he says: “I'm not dressed as a woman, there's no prosthetics and no swearing, so you probably won't recognise me. Oh, and my mum's in it.”

It’s not that Lucas isn’t funny in a different context – although he is keen to flog a dead horse with Little Britain starting well but outstaying its welcome, only to be followed by Come Fly With Me, which was really just mining the same seam at a higher altitude.

Last week’s guests included Germaine Greer, Clive Anderson and the ubiquitous Louis Walsh – in other words you’re not allowed to have a chat show series without him appearing – and the only memorable moments were provided by Anderson and his secret crush on Brian the dog from Family Guy, followed by their unease as silence descended while Lucas munched on the aforementioned choc ice.

Frankly he should have stayed eating it until he choked on the stick.
Our own Dara O’Briain, it must be said, is one of the funniest men on the planet – but his latest effort on the comedy channel Dave, entitled the School of Hard Sums, proves that even he isn’t infallible either.
Now, we already know he’s not your common-or-garden comedian because he studied maths and theoretical physics at UCD and he recently presented the very successful Stargazing series with Professor Brian Cox.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.