Just what the people of Britain have been storming Parliament for. Another chat show. Wouldn't it be great to say that The Michael McIntyre Chat Show is so different, so refreshing from Norton, Ross, Carr. Well, it isn't. It even looks like the BBC has taken Ross's old desk out of storage and paired it with a DFS armchair. But that doesn't mean the show is not worth watching.
In some ways this may be the simplest review I've ever written. If you like Michael McIntyre you'll like TMMCS. If you don't you won't. And presumably the BBC is hoping that he will bring his Roadshow audience with him. This show gives him a chance to show off his gift for delivering a comic line and actually in some ways the format is better than the Roadshow, giving him scope to go a bit more off-script. Sadly, on last night's evidence, only a little bit.
As I constantly tell people until they doze off, the first time I saw MM in a shoebox venue at the Edinburgh Fringe I was blown away by the fact that he pretty much improvised the whole hour. He has never really had the chance to indulge in freestyle comedy on television and, despite the appearance of a looser format, the chat show genre is pretty nailed down these days. So when, for instance Lily Allen mentions she dressed as a hot dog for a video, wouldn't you know it, a picture of Lily dressed as the hot dog pops up.
If the first show was a let-down that was the fault of the guests or the guest booker rather than MM. Lily Allen, Lord Sugar and Terry Wogan were hardly drop-everything exclusives. Allen is on the promotional trail for her new album, Terry was there to dispense advice having done a chat show himself, while Lord Sugar is hardly a latterday reclusive Howard Hughes.
They really should have landed more of a scoop – Cameron or Obama maybe? But good lord, politics might be controversial and we don't want that with our Horlicks or we can watch Newsnight. The smiley host was quick off the mark with quips as one would expect, but less good at Parkinson-style probing. Everything felt a little too cuddly, a little too rehearsed and played for laughs rather than investigative journalism or even slightly thoughtful talk. It was so slick it felt at times as if MM was auditioning for an American TV chat vacancy.
So if the guests – next week's line up is Clarkson, Clancy and Sir David Jason – are plucked from whoever is doing the promotional rounds it is up to MM to keep this fresh. He mainly managed this on the opening night by borrowing an audience member's phone, sending a text to everyone in it at the start and repeatedly returning to it for updates on responses. This was a pretty funny gimmick, which, as Lily Allen said, was "a show in itself".
I doubt if MM can get away with it every week, but the show does need a talking point. As Terry Wogan said, recalling his memorable live encounters with a drunk George Best and a taciturn Anne Bancroft, chat shows are remembered for their disasters. It was a bit of a problem that the most exciting moment last night was a 24-year-old clip of Nicolas Cage being manic on Wogan. And with TMMCS being pre-recorded and the guests being so well-behaved these days they could win Crufts, we may laugh, but it is unlikely we are going to see any disasters here.
The Michael McIntyre Chat Show, Mondays, BBC1.
