LAMARR REMAINS AFAR

Although the original plan was supposed to be for him to take a year off, and then return, refreshed, to make the Sophie Ellis-Bextor is a cat joke with renewed vigour, Mark Lamarr has found that he's enjoying not presenting Never Mind The Buzzcocks so much, he's never coming back.

(We suspect what's really happened is he's been locked in a shoe cupboard by Sheila Ferguson and the BBC are taking that as a resignation.)

It's good news for Simon Amstell, though, as it means he's finally found something to do with his life after quitting Popworld:

He said: "I hope I can be the one exception to the universal, exceptionless rule that when a new host takes over an old show it is a horrible embarrassing disaster."

Ahem... what about Les Dawson's run on Blankey Blank? Bob Monkhouse helming The Golden Shot? What about Joe Pasquale's The Price Is Right... oh.

music mark lamarr bbc simon amstell never mind the buzzcocks