What to say if you liked it

Hilarious hidden-camera prankster show in the tradition of Candid Camera and Beadle’s About, with bamboozled celebrities as the victims.

What to say if you didn’t like it

A completely watered down version of MTV’s Punk’d, without any of its grand cruelty, humour and must-see scenarios.

What was good about it?

• Antony ‘Blue’ Costa’s bizarrely nonchalant reaction on discovering an archaeological team digging up his back garden, as if it were an everyday occurrence. When offered a share of the £50K found by the faux excavator, he then admitted, “I could do with the money though”.

• Louis Walsh’s prank, a fake audition to appear on the American series of The X Factor. Fantastically cringe-worthy, this showed just how far the desperate talent show judge would go to get the gig.

• The lovely Ray Winstone. Took his joke well and added some much-needed star quality to the poor line-up of so-called celebrities.

• The Zoe Lucker meets Norman Bates scenario. She managed to hold it together well despite dodgy cups of tea, a mannequin mother shouting from upstairs and a loony thespian wannabe. The wonderful Ms. Lucker even sussed out the programme’s low budget (“That doesn’t sound like an old lady”).

• The absence of an obligatory studio presenter and audience.

What was bad about it?

• Although some of the set-ups worked, others just fell flat. Mark Owen’s situation lacked any real tension or grand ‘reveal’ moment while Paul Burrell’s was essentially one unfunny joke stretched out for 10 minutes.

• Ed Sayer as the central prankster. Although he’s due respect for having the balls to upset Mr Winstone, he lacks the charisma and versatility to carry the show on his shoulders.

• Uri Geller. Surely the biggest joke in the programme.

• The format of the show soon became tiresome and certainly didn’t warrant two episodes in one night, let alone an entire series.

• Punkd’s unique selling point was that it turned genuinely big name stars into stressed-out victims who wanted to cry and call their mums – the majority of those involved here appeared to just be a bit sad.

• Paul Burrell’s earring. Yuck.

• The absence of Ashton Kutcher.