Let's be honest, if you can't make a funny programme out of a cast that features Rob Beckett, Daisy May Cooper, Richard Ayoade, Sara Pascoe, Joe Wilkinson, Harriet Kemsley, Judi Love, Joe Lycett, Lou Sanders and Bob Mortimer then you rerally shouldn't be in the TV comedy game. And sure enough there are plenty of chuckles in this show in which these latterday clowns try to make each other laugh.

As well as the cast, Jimmy Carr hosts and Roisin Conaty features as his wisecracking sidekick overseeing the proceedings and judging whether someone is guilty. The rules are simple. In a Big Brother-style house one laugh lands you with a yellow card, a second gets you a red and you have to sit things out with Conaty and Carr.

Or are the rules that simple? What counts as a laugh? As Rob Beckett himself pre-emptively declares, he has so much mouth it is hard for him not to look as if he is grinning all the time. There are plenty of points where Judi Love and Daisy May Cooper have to to chew a brick – or a piece of fruit – to keep a straight face. Particularly when Bob Mortimer is around.

Because, of course, Mortimer is the wildcard. When not suppressing a smirk himself he is making the others lose it big style. His stand out moment is a magic show – each contestant has to "play their joker" and do  a solo turn at some point. Mortimer's madcap routine, to the tune of Queen's A Kind Of Magic, is pretty similar to this one he and Vic Reeves did years ago but that doesn't stop almost everybody else from struggling to hold in the giggles.

Also good value is filthy-minded funster Lou Sanders, who is superb at winding up Joe Wilkinson and Joe Lycett, although also prone to a few titters herself. Pascoe is an inveterate laugher and thus doesn't last long. Unlike Richard Ayoade, whose superior attitude and stiff upper lip absurdism tips a few of his rivals over the edge. Harriet Kemsley also winds everyone up well with a smutty ping pong routine. 

As I wrote at the outset there would be something seriously wrong if this wasn't funny with such a starry cast. But then the recent Irish version of this format featured luminaries Aisling Bea, Catherine Bohart and Jason Byrne and didn't quite click for me (though I have heard it went down OK with Irish viewers who were more familiar with the whole cast). Maybe there is something about knowing everyone involved that adds to the comedy potential.

And it's clear that a lot of them know each other from the live circuit and the panel show circuit so there is often a clear, natural rapport. Obviously it would be nice to give some TV breaks to some less well-known talent but having such established stars is clearly intended to pull in as big an audience as possible as quickly as possible. James Acaster or Sam Campbell would have been good calls.

I'm still not sure if the rules are strictly applied and I'm also not sure if Jimmy Carr is played by an AI version of himself, but for sheer comedy stupidity this does an excellent job.

Now streaming on Prime Video.

Watch Bob Mortimer's original magic routine below