Quite early on in BBC One’s new sitcom Blessed a character points out that hearing other people’s baby stories is really uninteresting. If writer Ben Elton was aware of that fact, what possessed him to write an entire sitcom on the subject?

To be fair to Mister Elton, he did manage to get a knob gag in within the first six minutes so he certainly hasn’t lost his touch in that dubious department. The first episode focused on the tiredness of the lead characters but it was the script that seemed tired to me.

The fruit tea bags thread for example might just have worked as a one liner but the subject was laboured to death and while I can imagine the rant in the mini mart working reasonably well if delivered by Elton himself, sadly Ardal O’Hanlon seemed all at sea with it, while there was little example of any chemistry between him and Mel Giedroyc, playing the wife.

The whole thing felt a bit similar in tone to Paul Whitehouse’s Happiness, only without the laughs.

I’d been looking forward to this and hope it gets better as the series progresses. Disappointingly The Green Green Grass hasn’t.

Hilarious
Thankfully there were some comedy high spots on the Beeb on Friday, none more so than Peter Andre and Katie Price’s appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, which proved to be unintentionally hilarious. I’m not sure what I enjoyed more, the ridiculous nature of their Punch and Judy style appearance or the look of mirthful disbelief displayed on the face of fellow guest Emma Thompson.

Cracking.

Meanwhile, Have I Got News For You got off to a great start with Jack Dee in the host’s chair and the annoyingly witty Tony Livesey as one of the guests.

Blind Faith

David Blunkett came in for a bit of a stick on HIGNFY but I was expecting the real kicking to come on More4’s A Very Social Secretary. It didn’t happen.

Far from being a parody exposing a man accused of abusing his position in the home office to do favours for friends, instead he came across as a sort of tragi-romantic hero while every other character came across in a bad light.

Bernard Hill turned in an excellent impression of the beleaguered cabinet minister but it was Doon MacKichan’s wicked interpretation of Cherie Blair that really stole the show. Oddly, Robert Lindsay’s performance as a permanently exasperated Tony Blair seemed remarkably similar to his exasperated dad in My Family while Alistair Campbell was barely recognisable at all.

The first week of More4 doesn’t seem to have done much for its credentials. If an identity has been established, it’s that of a ghetto for shows that are considered too risky, ratings-wise to shove on the main channel.

The point of More4 News, when we are awash with news channels and news shows, is beyond me.

Gumshoe

Could we get more of a cliché than ITV’s latest detective Vincent?

Our hero looks more than a little crumpled, has a broken marriage, drinks, smokes, scowls at his colleagues at the drop of a hat and is prone to irresponsible bouts of maverick behaviour.

Now this may have been acceptable if Ray Winstone had injected a bit of charisma into this sourpuss but he just came across as objectionable and unlikeable in the opener. The departed wife that he gets to spend a fair bit of the episode either brooding over and rowing with is played by the marvellous Eva Pope. She was a nutter in Corrie and a psycho in Peak Practice. He’s better off out of it.

All of this may have been more bearable if there was whodunnit to solve but we were even told who the murderer was, making the whole exercise a bit pointless. Even the mobile phone subplot was dull.

Famous faces popped up everywhere in this but easily the best performance came from Suranne Jones as one of Vincent’s long suffering staff. Worth her own show in my opinion.

Bowled over

One of the most hilarious scenes of the year on the box was seeing macho Yorkshire man and demon bowler Darren Gough camping it up on Strictly Come Dancing. Fair play to him for getting stuck in gamely. He must be taking some terrible stick from his mates.

Quite how Craig Revell Whatsname could say there was no personality in his performance was beyond me.

Gloria Hunniford looked impressive, though it was hard to tell at times because her frock nearly filled the dance floor on it’s own.

It’s going to be difficult to take Bill Turnbull seriously on the Breakfast news following his spirited and seemingly exhausting effort. It shouldn’t be such a problem with Fiona Phillips because it’s always been hard to take her seriously. I just felt sorry for Brendan Cole who appeared to be dragging her round like a bag of cement in a pink dress.

Somewhat irritatingly Fiona survived to dance another day, which may have more to do with the GMTV army of premium phone rate loving viewers than the actual dancing.

Eng-ger-lund

Sky Sports may be a bit expensive but as I’ve got it, I actually prefer it when they get the rights to the big events. They cover things so much better than anyone else.

The BBC are wallowing in former glories and “innovations??? such as Score Interactive are pale imitations of Sky’s stuff.

The coverage of England’s game against Poland was a case in point. John Motson may have been the daddy of commentary in his day (though I’ve always preferred Martin Tyler) but surely now it is time he was pensioned off.

Ruby’s no jewel

Wasted
Johnny Allen, the soap gangster, was at the centre of things in EastEnders this week. Billy Murray is a great actor, as proved by his show stealing efforts in The Bill, so it’s a shame that a character with great potential has been wasted.

Part of the problem is Johnny’s devotion to Ruby, who is about as interesting as, well Ben Elton’s new sitcom. The dreary daughter made a supposedly dramatic entrance at the end of Thursday’s episode where she hears that her dad is really a bad lad. It was such a lacklustre performance that it really wasn’t worthy of the duff-duffs.

Meanwhile, the Mitchell boys are looking a bit porky on the trailer for their return. If they are supposed to look menacing and moody, it hasn’t quite come off has it? They look more like they need a spell on Celebrity Fat Club then a return to the square.

It’s been great to see Ray Brooks getting more scenes with the never-cheerier Pauline. Let’s just hope that writers allow him to remain a ray of sunshine and don’t turn him into a melancholic misery guts like they did Alfie.

Long forgotten shows

Seeing Ray Brooks again reminded me of hit show Big Deal. I’d love the chance to see that again.

There are quite few shows that haven’t seen the light of day for a while. Does anyone remember Prospects, a great eighties comedy drama from Euston Films featuring the late Gary Olsen and Brian Bovell?

We need a channel like UK Gold used to be when it started, showing greats like Tenko and Colditz to a new audience.

Dek’s X Factor Column