The John Bishop Show, BBC1 - TV review: Old-school telly suits Saturday night sofa slumping
The comedian had a fine selection of acts on his first bill
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With Britain’s Got Talent coming to an end, the BBC obviously felt it needed to fill a variety show-shaped hole in our lives. Luckily, compared with much material on the ITV juggernaut, The John Bishop Show served up golden buzzer-worthy acts in a format suited to sofa slumping on a Saturday night.
This was commissioned on the back of successful Christmas runs and you can see why Bishop’s good for prime time. The material was cross-generational – the fact that the Liverpudlian comedian is a father of three young adults (“two boys and one bloke”, as he put it) means he clearly knows what’s on younger viewers’ radars, as well as what will float the parents’, grandparents’ and his own boat. “This is the most exciting night of my life,” he said. And you believed him.
He had some good gets on his first bill: among them, his favourite Paul Weller performing (it’s Jessie Ware next week) and comedy from Trevor Noah, the provocative South African stand-up and Jon Stewart’s soon-to-be-replacement on The Daily Show.
The only audience participation came when the implausibly skilled beat boxer Beardyman asked for crowd suggestions. At that point, I realised why I was enjoying it: there were no red buttons or voting apps. This was old-school telly and it felt good.
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