Splash!

Sat Feb 2, 7-8.30pm, ITV1

By Phil Harrison Fri Jan 25 2013

Series one, episode five
Might this be the least eagerly awaited final in the history of celebrity talent shows? Even during these dark days for Saturday-night primetime TV, it seems quite possible. Certainly, it’s hard not to view Tom Daley’s ‘Splash!’ as the last vestiges of the London 2012 spirit bellyflopping into an Olympic-sized swimming pool filled with bathos and ignominy.

Still, perhaps we can find some pearls amid the ordure. Judge Jo Brand has managed it, describing Omid Djalili’s top-board plunge as ‘so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes’. And given that a year or so ago, Brand helmed a documentary about her inability to cry in public, that’s saying something. Whoever lines up for this final, we’re confident that there won’t be a dry eye in the house.