10 o’clock Live, barely alive0

10 o’clock live was supposed to be Channel 4′s answer to the satire drought on British television.Following their alternative election programme Channel 4 decided to go head-to-head with BBC question Time on the schedule. Somewhere in the basement of Channel 4 the ingredients were prepared; one rapidfire joke machine Jimmy Carr, a razor sharp and adorably middle-class David Mitchell and a ranting, bag eyed TV critic named Charlie Brooker. Oh, and I almost forgot, a pinch of Lauren Laverne. Three of the funniest people in television, the perfect show right? Wrong! Brave as it is there are few things not quite right with this show. In reality, if you put these comic heavyweights together round a table it’s very much like putting three class clowns together in maths class.

They all show off with poor old teacher Mrs Laverne stuck in the middle trying to keep order. No sooner has one vaguely topical punchline being blurted out then another one is thrown at us. The show going out live adds to this frantic pace. It’s like starting a lesson five minutes before playtime. You may feel I’m being unnecessarily flippant towards Lauren Laverne. I just don’t feel she quite suits the show and is subsequently having her talent wasted. Having listened to her radio show on 6Music for quite some time I know she is a good presenter. However she is not a comedian. It  makes you wonder why they don’t have Jenny  Eclair or Jo Brand – both very funny and very astute comediennes.

I’m a huge fan of Charlie Brooker; as I write this review, his sharp grumpy features glare at me from the cover of his book, perched awkwardly on my shelf. His show Screenwipe was great. He would sit on a sofa in front of the TV swearing, judging and generally pouring venom over every program in sight. His role in 10 o’clock Live is very similar. He simply does short roundups of the week’s news. Given that he has to write this every week, they don’t seem as polished, or as funny as some of his previous efforts. The frustrating thing about his role on 10 0′clock is that he effectively performs a series of shorted versions of his TV show. When his segment comes to a close and the camera flings itself across the studio to land on the huge face of Jimmy Carr, I’m always left wanting a bit more. It seems strange Brooker is now part of mainstream TV. It would be interesting to go back in time and show 10 o’clock live to Brooker of the past and watch him scream, “What the hell have I done to my hair!” Jimmy Carr is also not at his best. Usually he travels at the rate of 30 last the second. However on 10 o’clock he seems to have put on the brakes and issued us with some rather obvious Ed Balls jokes.

Another thing which lets this program down is its’ split personality between flippant satire show and hard-hitting news night cast off. All of a sudden Jimmy Carr stops cracking one-liners and Mark Corrigan is interviewing top politicians. More notable guests include David Willetts and Alistair Campbell. It’s bizarre, I was half expecting David Willetts to be an impressionist. Both David Mitchell and the interviewees are so intent on making the audience “woop” that within the space of the short interview very little serious discussion takes place. This program is aimed mainly at the younger generation who Channel 4 must deem to have very short attention spans, judging by the length of the interviews. If you were to jump into any of the discussions they would be so shallow you would break your ankle. I can see what Channel 4 is trying to do, but it’s incredibly hard to jump from comedy to serious current affairs. What we have is a peculiar mixup between Live at the Apollo on Question Time.

I think this program is a very brave attempt that doesn’t quite work. I really hope that with some perseverance 10 o’clock live will develop and realise its true potential.

RHODRI BUTTRICK

So what do you think? Leave your comments below.