While the world weathers recession, Bremner, Bird and Fortune is experiencing its own credit crunch. With our budget cut by 80 per cent, we’ve traded our normal run of six shows for a mini-series of three, starting on Channel 4 tomorrow (Sunday). The first show focuses on the “Blame Game”, from bankers to MPs, from Russell Brand to Gordon Ramsay, while the second, “A Survivor’s Guide”, optimistically looks to the recovery.

It seems to me that the City’s been enjoying a bit of a party these past three months, with the London market up 25 per cent since its low in early March. Not that the rest of the world has shared the fun. It’s as if the traders have been enjoying a lock-in down the pub, with the curtains drawn and the door shut. When anyone knocks, there’s a lot of shushing and responsible talk of an extended bear market squeeze driven by government largesse, but it’s hard to say that when you’re a bit pissed. The favourite bar-room game is guessing the shape of the recession: V, U, W, L? A chance to dig out the old Rolf Harris impression: “D’you know what it is yet? Dim dibba dibba dibba dim ... ”

The last of the three shows is essentially a compilation of sketches from previous series but I recommend you watch it if only to enjoy the peerless double act of John Bird and John Fortune, whose sketch on subprime mortgages last year went viral and received more than 2m hits (not as many as Susan Boyle but then they’re not singing).

This show also includes a hilarious piece on bank bonuses, which you’d be forgiven for thinking was recorded last year but was actually done in 1996. Don’t let anyone tell you that criticism of City excess is a relatively new phenomenon. The show also features the wonderful FT journalist Gillian Tett, who gets to explain what an ABCDS is and is rewarded with a round of applause from a comedy audience. Mervyn King would kill for that. I imagine Gordon Brown got a similarly big hand when he told the audience at his 2002 Mansion House speech that “what you, as the City of London, have achieved for financial services we, as a government, now aspire to achieve for the whole economy.” Well, he got that bit right.

Looking back at the older shows also provided me with an opportunity to revisit some characters I’ve missed, such as Ken Clarke and John Major. It seems to me entirely plausible that in 1997, with the boom times about to arrive, the Tories decided they’d rather be anywhere than in government. No money in it. Far better to enjoy the good times from the comfort of City boardrooms. Major: “As my dear old father told me, ‘Be nice to people on the way up, you may meet them again when you work for Credit Suisse.’” The problem was how to get out of government. They chose sleaze. In their case, it was predominantly sex, rather than property, which is Labour’s chosen preoccupation. Still, there’s no accounting for taste. And, judging by their expenses, not much taste for accounting.

I spent most of last weekend travelling from Oxford to Scotland and back to do a show at Glamis Castle. Or, rather, in a very grand marquee on the lawns of Glamis Castle. In fact, I’m not sure the Earl of Strathmore doesn’t live in the tent and hire the castle from a company of set builders for the weekend. Whatever, the journey across the centre of Scotland from Glasgow, past Stirling, Perth and Gleneagles, was simply stunning: the gorse in full flower and the rolling hills and farmland bathed in glorious sunshine.

After the show, we chatted on the lawn, the light still good enough to see at 10.30pm. The castle is, as you’d hope, steeped in folklore and stories of ghosts and foul deeds. One concerns the existence of a barred window, visible from outside the castle, but with no corresponding room inside. Legends claim that the “room” was variously the repository of a mad or deformed child (an early form of cavity wall insulation), a chamber where a previous earl was doomed to play cards with the devil for ever as a punishment for breaking the sabbath, or a cell where members of the Ogilvy clan were imprisoned for murdering their hosts. I’m an Ogilvy, so I made my excuses and left.

A picture of Glamis Castle features on the back of the RBS £10 note. You can see the connection. Once a picturesque nod to Scotland’s history, the castle now stands as a metaphor for the bank; both are full of dark and terrible secrets and cost a bloody fortune to maintain.

Talking of RBS, how Fred Goodwin must be enjoying the whole MPs’ expenses scandal. I like to imagine him in a hut on some Polynesian atoll, turning on his laptop and adjusting the satellite receiver so he can log on to ft.com to find out who’s worth more – RBS or Lady Goodwin – and glimpsing a small link to a story called “MPs face public backlash”. With one bound, he’s free, tearing around the island, relieved of his position as Britain’s most hated, inviting all the neighbours – Allen Stanford, Dick Fuld, Bernie Madoff – round for a celebratory sundowner. Wouldn’t it be great if they all set up home together, somewhere appropriately (or should that be misappropriately?) offshore. You could call it Celebrity Hate Island.

Passing through Glasgow airport on Sunday morning, I catch a glimpse of the usual airport drinkers: people who’ve decided that, because they’re on holiday, it’s a good idea to have a couple of beers at 9.30am. It reminds me of a little vignette I witnessed the other day. Two girls, aged no more than 20, entered the café on the platform at Didcot station at 10.30am. While one eyed the celebrity magazines on the newsstands, her friend selected two bottles of Vodka Ice from the chill cabinet and went to the counter. “I’m sorry,” said the cashier, “we’re not allowed to sell alcohol at this time in the morning.” Whereupon the girl harrumphed loudly, turned to her friend and exclaimed: “What is this country coming to?”

‘Bremner, Bird and Fortune: The Last Show Before the Recovery’ is on June 7, Channel 4 at 7pm