This year the BBC turns 100. Fundamental to Britain and funded by licence fee payers, the BBC has garnered a worldwide reputation for quality. For this special post highlighting the highlights of the corporation's massive contribution to television, I've decided to...
QI is the cockroach of the television world. Not because it is a pestilent interloper disseminating disease and effluvia throughout the world – at least not until the episode featuring Jeremy Clarkson. It’s because that it seems impervious to the world surrounding it;...
“I’m going to hate this aren’t I?” bristled David Mitchell as new host Rob Brydon prepared to recite from the Cockney Bible. But raising the hackles of the amusing Mitchell is one of the conceits that Would I Lie To You? relies on to thrive and survive in the same...
Did we like it? We feared that transferring Stephen Fry's comedy panel game from BBC2 would be the ruin of a fine show, what with those BBC1 viewers being a lot less erudite and demanding. Yet this first BBC1 outing was every bit as good as any edition we've seen...
Did we like it? Not a strong return for the comedy panel game which normally scores eight out of 10 when it comes to funny bits. More like a four this week. What was good about it? • David Walliams was the most entertaining star of the show, camping it up outrageously...
Did we like it? Depends on your own perspective. On the plus side, four educated wits mock a bunch of self-serving idiots; on the negative side, four sneering bullies use emotionally stunted morons as verbal punchbags. What was good about it? • Jimmy Carr: “Sadly,...
These comedy panel games are diverting enough, but the proliferation of the genre means they're no longer must-see TV programmes (apart from Have I Got News For You). What was good about It? • Team Captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell • Lee's opinion of David as an...
Did we like it? Series two kicked of with an excellent episode with game show host Rob being humiliated as usual, a new "straight-acting" gay producer, a useless guest booker and a fine guest appearance by Eamonn Holmes and his partner Ruth Langsford. What was good...
Did we like it? Yes, we liked it but also despaired at how emblematic it was of the dearth of innovation in TV. As Eight Out Of Ten Cats finishes it blurs seamlessly into another comedy panel game in the same way as over-hyped Ibiza DJs segue one monochrome tune into...
After a year in which Ulrika Jonsson claimed she had been raped, was it really wise of her to appear as a belly-showing schoolgirl in a spoof of Britney's Baby One More Time video? Or laugh off the rhyme "She's football crazy, she's football mad, I can't think of a...