That Puppet Game Show

The dread word ‘madcap’ fell out of fashion decades ago, but virtually defines BBC1’s current Saturday night line-up: ‘That Puppet Game Show’ plus ‘I Love My Country’ equals primetime nadir. ‘That Puppet Game Show’ is by no means as hateful as ‘I Love My Country’. It’s just pitiable, which somehow makes it worse. The gameshow element, in which celebs (‘everybody’s sweetheart’ Katherine Jenkins and ‘king of TV’ Jonathan Ross) do silly things for charity under the watchful eye of wacky felt-skinned host Dougie Colon, is bad enough. But the sketches interspersed among the games, following events ‘behind the scenes’ as the producers decide to sack one of the team, are simply excruciating in their naked attempt – and abject failure – to recapture the subversion and anarchy of ‘The Muppet Show’. No surprise that Jim Henson’s son is involved but, on this evidence, a chip off the old block he is not. This makes ‘Don’t Scare the Hare’ look like ‘Isles of Wonder’.