The BBC appear to be on a mission to recruit middle-of-the-road stand-up comedians with a wide demographic appeal, ideally before their careers have hit a peak to save themselves some cash. Michael McIntyre was the first to be given his own Saturday night comedy series, and Rhod Gilbert is being groomed for something similar soon. But now, here comes John Bishop with a show he admitted is hastily-produced filler to plug a gap that appeared because "Fabio Capello's World Cup Diary" lost all currency. That may have been a joke, but it would explain a few things about John Bishop's Britain...
The format of the show has some merit, but the execution isn't especially great. Bishop essentially provides 20-minutes of themed stand-up material (episode 1 "Love & Marriage", episode 2 "Growing Up", etc), interspersed with talking head interviews of the public (some famous faces, most just regular people), and a few "sketches" that lend a visual to a few funny scenarios Bishop's talking about on-stage.
The positive thing about this show is that John Bishop's a decent stand-up performer who isn't overexposed yet and, while his material is hardly anything to get excited about, it's easy to see why the BBC were keen to have him develop something for them. He's a likable guy with an easygoing Liverpudlian charm, who's not going to offend or upset anyone. Most importantly, his jokes stands a good chance of making children, teenagers, men, women and the elderly laugh in equal measure. Bishop's gags are mostly observational and you feel like you've heard half of them before, but what he lacks in originality he makes up for with laid-back charisma.
The downsides are that the interviews with the public are mishandled, because they appear to almost interrupt Bishop's routine just when he's on a roll. The first few times this happens, it's bearable, but it soon becomes a little irritating -- especially because you soon realize that 90% of the people's anecdotes or opinions aren't that interesting or funny. The show is trying to cultivate a feeling that the entire country is involved in the series, but using carefully edited video clips (with obligatory celebs to perk interest?) just isn't the way to do that. There's a real audience watching Bishop perform, so I'd have liked to see him bounce off them more often. There are a few moments when he does that and he copes well, so I don't know why that comedian/audience interaction isn't pushed more.
I also hate this current trend in UK comedy to negate the need for imagination in stand-up comedy, by visualizing things for us. It started with Stuart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, where Lee's routine would occasionally segue into a quick sketch to illustrate an idea or joke, which is entirely unnecessary because Lee's words were painting a funnier mental image if he'd left it alone. The Ricky Gervais Show is doing exactly the same thing in animated form, by providing a cartoon to run alongside old XFM podcasts. And in John Bishop's Britain we're given "sketches" that are just re-enactments of an event Bishop's talking about, filmed in a surprisingly fluid and striking way. Someone clearly enjoyed making these little vignettes, but they're entirely unnecessary.
What I'm getting at is pretty simple: John Bishop's Britain would be much improved if it was simply 30-minutes of stand-up comedy every weekend, revolving around a particular theme, where Bishop was interacting with his live studio audience. That may not be a cutting-edge format, but when the alternative is shoehorning in pointless sketches and vox pops that kill the pace and flow, I know what I'd prefer.
"John Bishop's Britain" continues tonight on BBC1 at 9.40pm...
