PREVIEW: Stand Up And Deliver, Channel 4

Five plucky celebrities are about to take on the challenge of their lives in support of Stand Up To Cancer.

While the professionals take years to hone their craft, find their comedy voice and assume a convincing stage persona, our famous faces have just over two weeks to refine their act, before they take to the stage in front of a comedy hungry crowd.

Five of the UK's top comics mentor the celebrities through the process: David Baddiel coaches broadcaster and former Communard, Reverend Richard Coles, Jason Manford is tasked with shepherding Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder, Nick Helm guides Tory Peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Judi Love drills Love Island star and dancer Curtis Pritchard and Zoe Lyons champions former Coronation Street actor Katie McGlynn.

In this first episode, the five celebrities are thrown in at the deep end as their mentors put them straight on stage to gauge their sense of natural comedic talent - in some cases, very little!

Katie McGlynn struggles without a script to hand, Curtis Pritchard teeters on the edge of a very cringey overperformance and Shaun Ryder, who has ADHD, has a complete mind blank and immediately forgets the stories he wants to tell the audience. Reverend Richard Coles' mentor David Baddiel was hoping for something more original and unexpected, and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi's left-leaning tutor Nick Helm cannot believe his task is to make a Tory look good.

With just fifteen days to perfect their act, Shaun and Sayeeda go back to their roots to gather material, Katie rushes to write herself a script to help overcome her nerves, Curtis is drilled in dropping the jazz hands and David attempts to push Richard into darker material, suggesting he draw on his grief following the death of his partner. However, Jason Manford appears to have the biggest mountain of all to climb with Shaun.

Despite Shaun displaying an extraordinary degree of confidence, he tells his mentor he has nothing to worry about and will just be able to wing it on the night... Throw in an attempt to persuade a Vicar to add some swear words to his set, a Baroness in fancy dress and some excruciating practice performances, it's no surprise that both the celebrities and their mentors wonder if they've taken on too big a challenge.

Stand Up And Deliver begins Thursday 26th February at 9pm on Channel 4.