This latest offering had us laughing throughout… as one would expect from the great cast!
Ok, the format is not exactly new and I know the show has taken quite a blasting for this fact alone, but the jokes are new, the talent is new – so in all seriousness if you are so bloody offended by having something from the 80's dragged into the here and now just switch off. It’s easy enough; hit one button and you are no longer subjected to the onslaught.
The show had a good mix of guests, who managed to gel well together without one ego seeming to take over the show as so often seems to happen in these situations. Good, too, to see Rufus Hound emerging from the light entertainment hell he seems to have disappeared into over time and actually get the opportunity to make us all laugh again.
Some rounds worked better than others and the necessary edits were glaringly obvious, but to my mind that added to the rawness of the format. Those parts that did not work so well this time around may go better with different comedians working them another time, it does not necessarily mean they should not be part of the show at all, and the bumbling nature of the stars, not quite knowing what to do next only enforced the improvised aspect of the whole show.
For balance, I have to say I found the eulogy round slightly uncomfortable, as an audience member was told she was to lie down and pretend she was dead.
I quite like the idea of the round, but it could have been done in a different format; maybe if rather than a eulogy the person was being toasted, introduced as a guest speaker at a conference or something. Or perhaps I just worry too much about death as a subject matter; either way, I did squirm through that round a little.
You also have to wonder; if there were more episodes made how many people on finding out they would be in the audience would try to make their facebook profiles seem as wacky as possible in order to ensure they were picked. I am reminded in particular of my childhood when Noel Edmonds used to have a segment of his Saturday show in which cameras would have been placed around the home of an “unsuspecting” victim; towards the end of its run, people would be behaving in a far more ridiculous way as they were quite obviously aware of the fact they were to appear on television.
This show was only a pilot, although it generally takes me more than one episode of a programme to decide if I like it, so it would be good to see a couple more made even if it didn’t become a full series.
Definitely has potential to be something great once the kinks are ironed out though!
Clips are available on the Dave site and on Youtube. There are places you can watch the full episode online, but as they are not officially linked to Dave, I am not sure about the legality of them so will not link to them.
The episode is repeated on Saturday night at 9pm, kicking off an entire evening of shows featuring Mark Watson (including his excellent One Night Stand) running until about 3am – ok, the shows are on a loop, so you don’t have to spent the entire time watching, but six hours of listening to his voice…. I ain’t complaining any!
I'll close by reminding you, as always, to take a look at Mark's own blog. Always a great read! (although I've not looked in for a few days myself having been mightily busy with the humdrum, but I am sure it still is- no reason to think it wouldn't be!)
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