Did we like it?

It made us happy and it featured Al Murray The Pub landlord – so it did its job.

What was good about it?

• Al Murray is so endearing. He straddles satirical comedy and light entertainment – a precarious divide – and never fails to amuse. Nothing is off limits when he’s in his Pub Landlord persona, even his admission that he masturbated to Myleene Klass’s bikini-clad appearances on I’m A Celebrity.

• Al pointing out the lack of ingenuity shown in concocting the 1999 bar snack of the year – sausage and bean bake.

• Al’s observation that Neighbours “is like National Service in Australia. Draft dodgers are all backpacking across Europe.”

• The gag about Kylie. “It was terrible, tragic news last year… that she was going out with a Frenchman.”

• The guest interviews all went well, despite rather bland material to work with – Jason ‘feelgood’ Donovan, Torville and Dean and Amanda Holden, who spoke in a weird Cockneyish manner. And we loved the grunts and strange noises Al made as they told anecdotes.

• We loved his analysis of Jason’s songs Too Many Broken Hearts (“Can you put a figure on it?”) and Any Dream Will Do (“Any dream?”)

• And his jokes about the ice dancers. eg “You’ve got the keys to Nottingham. Can you cut me a set? Last time I was there I had to throw pebbles at the window” and “Dancing On ice – there’s not an ounce of fat on that title.”

• Al’s mistake in thinking his guests were Keith Harris and Orville not Torville and Dean worked well, causing him to scrap his pre-planned questions such as “Is bird flu affecting your bookings?”

• Al’s suggestion that ITV1 should make Where The Wild Hearts Heartbeat On Ice.

What was bad about it?

• Al’s opening monologue/humiliation of the audience went on too long. It may have been better if he’d spread his interaction with the crowd throughout the programme.

• Al’s mimicking of the West Country accent to receive some too-easy laughs.

• The raucous singing and overblown chimp impression got on our nerves.

• We like the idea of forcing musical guests to perform a Queen song, but Kate Melua’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love was lame.