Thursdays are funny! We've been told it so many times recently, that after last night's disappointing first episodes of both The Life And Times Of Vivienne Vyle *and* The Peter Serafinowicz show (though there was more to enjoy in the latter, as I'll explain in my review) I'm starting to think that BBC Two thought they'd better resort to brain-washing to convince us. Because, despite all the good press I've read about this Jennifer Saunders vehicle, it wasn't good.

Or, at least, it wasn't funny. At all. It looked right, and there was a competent cast, but in the end this was meant to be a comedy, wasn't it? And I barely cracked a smile.

Vivienne Vyle (Saunders) is a daytime chat show host - very much in the style of "bear-baiting" Jeremy Kyle (well done to the Beeb for catching the zeitgeist, at least). She may idolise Oprah, but she's pure Kyle, all "get your hands out of your pockets" and "you're a disgrace". The researchers even get the guests riled up backstage to make for better viewing.

But, this show is determined to tell us, Vyle is not just a monster. The first glimpse we have of her is when she's looking at herself in the mirror, forlorn and alone. The thing is, she is a monster, and it's not surprising that she ends up in hospital at the hands of that goaded guest. A psychologist is brought in to give the show some air of responsibility and he sums it up when he says: "I think it's only reasonable that when you take people apart and don't give them something back to replace what they've lost, eventually someone's going to punch you in the face."

That psychologist is introduced as the voice of reason, but unfortunately he can't really articulate his well-meant ideas, and he's easily shouted down by the brash telly people he's somehow ended up working for. But maybe he's making a little change: Miranda Richardson's idiot producer is made to realise that when her two year old daughter only speaks Spanish (thanks to the au pair), that's probably something that needs to be sorted.

Richardson is a brilliant character actress, but her character here is just too horrid to be funny, and while the chat show sequences were absolutely spot on, you can't help feeling that they have been bashed enough, anyway. Nothing new is being said here, and worst of all it just wasn't funny. Comedy shows often need time to bed in, but I'm really not sure there was enough in this show to keep me watching.