Food & Drink Pointless Celebrities, 8th July

There's an oasis in Wimbledon's Pointless-free desert on 8th July at 6.45pm, with a repeat of a Food & Drink edition of Pointless Celebrities.

Ed Baines and Paul Rankin team up to battle fellow chefs Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala, Jean-Christophe Novelli joins forces with TV cook Jo Pratt and former Great British Bake Off finalist Richard Burr works together with 2013 finalist Frances Quinn.

Pointless shortlisted for TV Choice Awards

Pointless has been shortlisted in the Daytime category of the TV Choice Awards. Please give them your support: if you've voted previously this year, that was to get them onto the shortlist - now they need your help to win!

The 2017 TV Choice Awards take place on Monday September 4 at The Dorchester in London, and will be hosted by Richard Osman.

Animals, Cats, Peter, and the Wolf

Alexander Armstrong has been recording an album with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, in which he narrates several pieces of classical music.

Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf tells a children's story while the orchestra illustrates it. A young boy, Peter, and his friends, the farmyard animals, capture a big grey wolf that comes out of the forest.

Carnival of the Animals, by Saint-Saëns, is a humorous musical suite of 14 movements, each representing a different animal or animals. In 1949, Ogden Nash wrote a set of humorous verses to accompany each movement.

20th Century British composer Alan Rawsthorne wrote orchestral pieces to accompany poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the same poems that inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. This composition has only been recorded once before, in the 1950s.

The album comes out in the autumn, and Xander will be taking part in a live performance of the pieces in Liverpool.

Family Pointless Celebrities, 1st July

Pointless Celebrities on 1st July at 5.45pm is a repeat of the Family special.

It features Louis Theroux with his wife Nancy Strang, Michael Underwood and his wife Angellica Bell, Calum Best and his mum Angie, and Gary Lineker with his son Harry.

Wimbledon

As is the norm, Pointless goes on hiatus for the two weeks of Wimbledon, from Monday 3rd July. It will (I assume) return on Monday the 17th. In the meantime, if you have withdrawal symptoms, just about every Pointless episode ever is on YouTube, and it'll still be on Challenge every evening at 7pm, so fill your boots!

Alexander Armstrong wins Silver Clef Award

Alexander Armstrong has been announced as the winner of the PPL Classical Silver Clef Award for 2017. The prestigious O2 Silver Clef Awards are presented by music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins, which does life-changing work with people with disabilities and illnesses.

The award, along with others to Dame Shirley Bassey, Phil Collins, Blondie, Emeli Sande, Mumford & Sons, Anne-Marie, Nile Rodgers and Pete Tong, will be presented on Friday 30th June at the Grosvenor Park Hotel, Park Lane, London. Congratulations, Xander!

Child Stars Pointless Celebrities, 24th June

Pointless Celebrities on Saturday 24th June is a repeated Child Stars special, at 5.55pm.

Outnumbered's (and Xander's one-time screen son) Tyger Drew-Honey teams up with This Is England's Thomas Turgoose, while Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory's Julie Dawn Cole joins forces with Oliver! star Mark Lester. Plus, former Grange Hill stars Lee MacDonald and Erkan Mustafa take on old classmate Michelle Gayle as she partners ex-Coronation Street actor Adam Rickitt.

Crikey DM, it's Series 2 of Danger Mouse!

The delayed premiere of series 2 of Danger Mouse has finally been scheduled for this Wednesday, 14th June, on CBBC.

In the first episode, Dark Dawn, at 6pm, Danger Mouse, played by Alexander Armstrong, battles an army of vengeful soft toys. There's a second episode at 6.35, The Admirable Penfold, in which Baron Greenback and Penfold are stranded together on a desert island.

A third series of Danger Mouse has already been commissioned, so we have lots more DM to come in the future.  The world is safe!

The Imitation Game

Alexander Armstrong will host the pilot of a new comedy panel show, The Imitation Game.

Top impressionists Rory Bremner and Debra Stephenson along with Britain’s Got Talent’s Jess Robinson and rising star Luke Kempner are challenged to perform their stunning big name impersonations in a series of witty rounds and hilarious games. So what will happen when Donald Trump rubs shoulders with Cheryl Cole, or Boris Johnson duets with Adele?

The show takes place in the evening of Friday 7th July at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, north of London. You can apply for free tickets (over 16 only) here.

Music Pointless Celebrities, 17th June

There's a (repeated) music-themed edition of Pointless Celebrities on Saturday 17th June at 5.55pm.

Taking part are Sinitta and Jaymi Hensley, Vernie Bennett and Easther Bennett, Claire Richards and Ian 'H' Watkins, and Tony Christie and Ben Adams.