That wasn't too bad, was it? Contrary to weekend reports in the newspapers that Lily Allen's chat show was going to be car-crash television for BBC Three's new-look launch night, it was actually quite entertaining.
Sure, there were problems: the patronizingly way Lily "upgraded" some of her audience (comprised of Myspace friends) to a "celebrity bar" if they told an embarrassing story, an indulgent road-trip to a posh hotel Lily video-taped herself, the seemingly-staged appearance of Anne Robinson to chastise Lily for snooping around the Weakest Link studio, and the general belief that a show is hip and cutting edge just because it shows funny clips from the internet. It's not. Just ask Lenny Henry. Or Richard and Judy.
On the positive side: Lily may not be a natural or skilled "interviewer" per se, but she was enjoyably matey with her guests and has an infectious giggle. She could become irritating, but for now she seemed pleasant and endearing.
Guest David Mitchell is always pretty funny and definitely helped the first half of the show pass by smoothly. The clip he showed from the new Mitchell & Webb Look series ("The Boy With An Arse For A Face") was a hilarious pastiche of those voyeuristic documentaries.
Cuba Gooding Jr was surprisingly good fun – in a similar way to Will Smith, by being self-deprecating and outgoing. It's just a shame Lily didn't ask him why he's been stuck in family-film hell post-Oscar success. I have a feeling he'd have been quite candid about it all. Oh well.
As I mentioned, the show was heavily indebted to the internet – where Lily was "discovered" and BBC Three now hopes to have a symbiotic relationship with. That meant there were irritating plugs for viewers to send in stuff by e-mail ever few minutes, faintly amusing clips of animals having sex, the guests being asked questions by Chris Crocker (YouTube "star" who famously gets enraged about Britney Spears bashers), and a bizarre final guest in the shape of Tay Zonday (odd-voiced YouTube singer of "Chocolate Rain"), who elicited plenty of audience giggles. Yes, he really does talk like that!
Overall, this wasn't the awful abomination I was expecting. Maybe it was because my expectations were lowered, but it passed the time for me. It was basically like a low-budget version of The Charlotte Church Show (with internet clips), although Lily Allen commendably refused to fumble through comedy monologues, and didn’t take the opportunity to shamelessly sing one of her songs. That honour instead went to Tay Zonday and his bizarre rendition of "Smile".
Maybe the reported one third of the audience who walked out of the show didn't realize TV recordings take as long as they do? It probably didn't help that they were all standing up either! Or maybe we just witnessed a brilliant piece of careful editing by the production team?
I'm even beginning to suspect the weekend reports were intentional reverse-psychology? Lily fans and BBC Three regulars will have been tuning in, but a sizeable chunk of the TV audience probably watched to see an expected disaster. They didn't get it.
I'm not saying Lily Allen & Friends was chat show brilliance, but it passed the time and Lily came out of it pretty well – particularly considering she was dumped by her boyfriend days after having a miscarriage a few weeks ago. We'll see how it develops from here – as chat shows always survive on the quality of their guests, and the interviewers' rapport.
12 February 2008
BBC Three, 10.30 pm
Sure, there were problems: the patronizingly way Lily "upgraded" some of her audience (comprised of Myspace friends) to a "celebrity bar" if they told an embarrassing story, an indulgent road-trip to a posh hotel Lily video-taped herself, the seemingly-staged appearance of Anne Robinson to chastise Lily for snooping around the Weakest Link studio, and the general belief that a show is hip and cutting edge just because it shows funny clips from the internet. It's not. Just ask Lenny Henry. Or Richard and Judy.
On the positive side: Lily may not be a natural or skilled "interviewer" per se, but she was enjoyably matey with her guests and has an infectious giggle. She could become irritating, but for now she seemed pleasant and endearing.
Guest David Mitchell is always pretty funny and definitely helped the first half of the show pass by smoothly. The clip he showed from the new Mitchell & Webb Look series ("The Boy With An Arse For A Face") was a hilarious pastiche of those voyeuristic documentaries.
Cuba Gooding Jr was surprisingly good fun – in a similar way to Will Smith, by being self-deprecating and outgoing. It's just a shame Lily didn't ask him why he's been stuck in family-film hell post-Oscar success. I have a feeling he'd have been quite candid about it all. Oh well.
As I mentioned, the show was heavily indebted to the internet – where Lily was "discovered" and BBC Three now hopes to have a symbiotic relationship with. That meant there were irritating plugs for viewers to send in stuff by e-mail ever few minutes, faintly amusing clips of animals having sex, the guests being asked questions by Chris Crocker (YouTube "star" who famously gets enraged about Britney Spears bashers), and a bizarre final guest in the shape of Tay Zonday (odd-voiced YouTube singer of "Chocolate Rain"), who elicited plenty of audience giggles. Yes, he really does talk like that!
Overall, this wasn't the awful abomination I was expecting. Maybe it was because my expectations were lowered, but it passed the time for me. It was basically like a low-budget version of The Charlotte Church Show (with internet clips), although Lily Allen commendably refused to fumble through comedy monologues, and didn’t take the opportunity to shamelessly sing one of her songs. That honour instead went to Tay Zonday and his bizarre rendition of "Smile".
Maybe the reported one third of the audience who walked out of the show didn't realize TV recordings take as long as they do? It probably didn't help that they were all standing up either! Or maybe we just witnessed a brilliant piece of careful editing by the production team?
I'm even beginning to suspect the weekend reports were intentional reverse-psychology? Lily fans and BBC Three regulars will have been tuning in, but a sizeable chunk of the TV audience probably watched to see an expected disaster. They didn't get it.
I'm not saying Lily Allen & Friends was chat show brilliance, but it passed the time and Lily came out of it pretty well – particularly considering she was dumped by her boyfriend days after having a miscarriage a few weeks ago. We'll see how it develops from here – as chat shows always survive on the quality of their guests, and the interviewers' rapport.
12 February 2008
BBC Three, 10.30 pm
