The line-up of guests was interesting, but had its own share of problems. First up was Bruce Forsythe, who hasn't allowed himself to become too overexposed on the chat-show circuit, so I was looking forward to hearing from this national treasure. Sadly, all we got was Carr turning Brucie's catchphrases into punchlines, a clip from The Generation Game, and Brucie teaching Carr how to dance in an "unscripted" moment that had clearly been rehearsed beforehand.
Next up, actor-cum-documentary filmmaker Ross Kemp. I respect the man, but he's only ever plugging his serious documentaries about Afghanistan and, just recently, modern-day pirates. So, he's hardly a barrel of laughs, and it left Carr with no opportunities to ply his brand of giggly humour and double-entendres. Eventually, Carr resorted to showing a clip of a 20-year-old advert for a breakfast cereal Kemp starred in, and then dug himself a comedy latrine by dueting with Kemp in singing the ad's jingle. Excruciating.
Finally, there was "Hollywood hottie" Heather Graham (unfortunately wearing trousers, instantly killing half her appeal), and even more unfortunately proving herself quite a boring interviewee. She mainly just smiled and giggled every five seconds, before introducing a clip of her latest movie The Hangover (she plays a prostitute with a heart of gold™, having been stereotyped for years). I can't remember a single thing she said the moment the credits rolled. She's one of those celebs it's better to just admire in magazines and via their many instances of film nudity.
In-between the interviews, there was a half-hearted attempt at some funny business from Carr, most notably when highlighting celebrity "tweets" from social networking site Twitter, then poking fun at them. Out of context, 140-character statements obviously lend themselves to ridicule, not to mention the fact many are typed while drunk, or by renowned celebrity dullards. So, easy pickings, not particularly funny.
A really terrible start, basically. His SNP co-star Justin Lee Collins' chat-show on ITV2 was far superior, surprisingly. At least JLC appears to be genuinely interested in his guests, allows them to talk at length (more than Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton combined, actually), and there's a mild sense of unpredictability from him as a host. Carr looked hamstrung by a need to get to his pre-planned jokes, and isn't a natural conversationalist.
14 June 2009
Channel 4, 10pm
