8 Out Of Ten Cats - TV review
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee may have taken place last weekend, but it seems nobody told the Channel 4 scheduling department, who decided to roll out Jimmy Carr and the boys for a special episode – just when the rest of the nation had finished taking down the bunting.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee may have taken place last weekend, but it seems nobody told the Channel 4 scheduling department, who decided to roll out Jimmy Carr and the boys for a special episode – just when the rest of the nation had finished taking down the bunting.
Yes, the red, white and blue was back in full force on Saturday night with a jubilee special of 8 Out Of Ten Cats, the show that tries to keep its finger on the pulse of what the public have been talking about that week.
And this week, unsurprisingly, the jubilee has been top of the discussion topics.
Now as a man who had had just about enough of the celebrations before the crusts had come off the first cucumber sandwich, this may not have been aimed at me.
But luckily, Jimmy and the team captains Sean Lock and Jon Richardson work so well together that they would still be watchable even if they spent the duration discussing Katie Price's latest break-up, the latest episode of TOWIE or, yes, the Diamond Jubilee.
In fact, the idea of stand-up comic Sean dissecting Amy Childs' love life every week is quite appealing – you get the impression that only one of them would last past the first episode.
As it happened though, the subject matter didn't make for a classic episode, with the cats not quite on top form and the guests not contributing as much as usual.
Some of the jokes felt a little laboured and there wasn't that one guest who made the show – Jennie Bond and Chris Kamara were game for a laugh, but the two extra comics, Miles Judd and Sarah Millican, failed to raise a smile.
Royal correspondent Bond did give an insight into some of the lives of the royals, even if the others didn't believe a word of it. Apparently the Queen occasionally does the washing up after dinner, she said. Yes, you can see why some might think it far-fetched.
And former-footballer Kamara outed himself as a secret royalist who was in his element during the whole celebrations – a charge that they couldn't level at the Queen, for whom they'd found several shots of her looking jolly miserable during the whole proceedings.
To be fair to her though, I'd be wearing a frown if I was forced to spend four hours on a boat waving non-stop while the rain lashed down around me.
And I'm a fair bit younger than her 86 years as well.
Back to the spring chicken Kamara though, who also revealed himself to be as big a fan of delusion as the royals – in the rare moments that the conversation moved on, the Sky Sports man kept a straight face as he told the audience that England can win the European Championships.
And he also provided the highlight of the night – as the infamous clip of him covering a Portsmouth game and missing a red card was shown for the umpteenth time.
If you've been living under a rock and haven't seen it, get on YouTube and take a look – it's well worth a watch.
It was telling though that the best moment came away from the jubilee talk, as the jokes came a bit more naturally and the cats' charm was able to shine.
So if they really wanted to keep the show's finger on the pulse, perhaps they should have joined the rest of us and packed the bunting back into the attic on Wednesday – rather than leaving it up a little too long.
Todd Nash
