Maureen Lipman returns to her comic roots in Hull, where she first got laughs on the steps of her father's tailor shop. Brothers Simon and Chris Donald visit the Victorian terrace in Newcastle where they gave birth to the anarchic comic Viz, while writer Ian Le Frenais trawls the city's suburbs to reveal the haunts of the Likely Lads. Leigh Francis travels to Leeds to reveal the 'real Avid Merrion'. Alan Whicker narrates.

• Juliet Stevenson
• Doon Mackichan
• Maureen Lipman