I like to go into things with an open mind - it would be silly of a TV reviewer to do anything else - but that doesn't mean that I don't have preconceptions about new television programmes, or that I am secretly happy when those preconceptions are entirely vindicated. So, I am secretly (or, more properly, very openly) happy to report that my preconceptions about this new impressions/sketch show from Kevin Bishop were borne out almost to the letter. Well, part secretly happy and part depressed, I suppose.

So what did I think The Kevin Bishop Show would be like? Well, I thought that it would be generally poor to middling with the odd gem, and there would be lots of silly sketches, some of which might push the boundaries of what would be considered good taste, with a couple of more intelligent ones thrown in. And I'd hope that anyone who watched the first episode on Friday, or, like me, caught up with it over the weekend, would agree that, overall, that's a pretty decent summary of it.

I'd like to say that I got my predictions right because I'm psychic, or phenomenally clever or something, but of course the reason I got it right was because sketch shows - and especially ones which focus on celebrity parodies and impressions - are often pretty easy to call. I was hoping that Kevin Bishop - who shot to fame in Channel 4's Star Stories - might do something a little different with the formula, but while I'm sure that he thought he was being a bit daring with a few sketches (especially the R Kelly video about checking a potential lover's age which you can see below) in reality he played it safe.

For a start, he packed around 40 sketches into a 23 minute show, clearly hoping that if you disliked one, you might like the next, or at least the one after that, each separated by the same bleep that Charlie Brooker uses on ScreenWipe to denote changing channel (another entry for "You Know You've Watched Too Much TV When..." there!), and at a ratio of about four poor skits to every one that prompted a smile. Having quite so many sketches doesn't suggest that the producers of the show had a massive amount of confidence in them, although I'm sure they'd say that the fast-paced nature of the programme simply reflects the way we flick around channels trying to find something decent to watch these days.

For me, the most memorable sketch was Sophie's Choice - The Musical, simply because it was one of the few that actually surprised me. At first, I thought it was a bit silly to parody something that could actually happen (Les Mis is hardly laugh a minute), but the twist came when the audience were invited to choose which of her children should be taken from her. It was this sort of twist that was sorely missing from most of the sketches, such as the one concentrating on *Brian* Cowell who treats his corner-shop employees the same way as Simon treats X-Factor contestants.

It's virtually impossible to name a sketch show that *isn't* "hit and miss", it goes with the territory, but this certainly erred on the side of miss. More disappointing, however, was how predictable and safe many of the sketches were - I could have written much of this review before the show even began, and that's a real shame.