When I heard that Peter Kay was producing a new piece of television, I was pleased – he may have gone slightly out of fashion over the last couple of years stand-up-wise (where’s his eyeliner for chrissakes?) – but there’s no denying that Phoenix Nights is a really fantastic sitcom. But the topic he had chosen, reality TV shows, did worry me slightly. Everyone’s been knocking reality TV for ages! He’s about three years too late with this parody, and it would only work if the jokes and the satire were really top notch…

Take a look at our Britain’s Got The Pop Factor gallery…

UPDATE: To read Anna’s review of BGTPFAPANCSSSOI, go here.

As Paul pointed out before, the ridiculous title of this show suggested from the outset that this parody would be more silly than cutting, and my word it was anything but cutting. We’re talking butter knife.

But I’ll do the positives first (I hesitate to say because it won’t take me long…): the one thing that was absolutely spot on, and which really needed to be, was the look of the show. The music ran the full gamut from dramatic opera, to DJ Shadow, to Chasing Cars and Enrique’s Hero, just as appears on every single reality TV show ever – even Strictly has started doing it, much to my annoyance. And the editing too was just right; fast-cut packages were mixed with slow-motion sections, again just like the real thing. Even this, though, just felt a little… easy.

Peter Kay’s stand-up is based on pointing out the absurdities of real life, but it works because he flags up things that we just take for granted. That element of surprise was here totally lacking because everyone in the television-watching world is fully aware of the absurdities of reality TV.

I was doing positives, wasn’t I? Well, the first giggle was raised when the voiceover announced that “The phonelines are ready, and the lights are rigged”, phrases accompanied by the words “The phonelines…. are rigged” on the screen. But the main enjoyment came from the performances of the finalists. There was the classic Northern boy done good, R Wayne (ok, that’s pretty funny) who was called back into the competition when the death of his gran meant he had a sad enough story, 2 Up 2 Down, a group with two able bodied men, and their wheelchair bound wives, and Geraldine who, whaddyaknow, used to be Gerald.

In the performances, Peter Kay’s knack for choosing just the right songs was in evidence: R Wayne went seamlessly from Earth Song into YMCA, 2 Up 2 Down took in Bootilicious and Hero, and Geraldine tackled Free Nelson Mandela, (ella ella eh eh eh), Umbrella, and that B*witched classic C’est La Vie. All choices, it has to be said, which made me smile.

But I think that’s about where the positives end. One major failing was that Kay was clearly so intent on making the show as realisitic as possible, that he forgot to make it different enough to be worth the exercise – there were barely any jokes in the results show at all. There’s also the problem that he could come up with little more ridiculous than what we see on the real thing – in the auditions we saw a man dressed up half as Freddie Mercury and half as Montserrat Caballe to sing Barcelona, and another guy trying to get the wrong dog do tricks. I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid at either of those things on Britain’s Got Talent.

And then there’s the fact, the fatal flaw, that the satire was so very gentle. I have no problem with parodies that have great respect for their subjects (Richard Ayode and Matt Berry’s take on Jesus Christ Superstar is a great example of getting the balance bang on), but you have to have something insightful to say or it’s just not worth the bother. And this – as great as it looked, and authentic as The Winner’s Song sounded (and why shouldn’t it, it was co-written by Gary Barlow) – was bordering on not being worth the bother.