Amy Childs

Jury remains out on Amy Childs' BOAF performance

Amy Childs# appearance in Birds Of A Feather seems to have invoked a mixed response among viewers, with many taking to Twitter to praise - or pan - the former TOWIE star.

Returning sitcom Birds of a Feather will soon have another female enter the ranks in the form of former TOWIE star Amy Childs.

Now that Sharon has given up work, Tracey is the only one in the house bringing in a wage, and it's not nearly enough to pay the bills, so Dorien kindly offers to dip into her savings to help out.

However, when man-eating Dor calls the bank it emerges every penny she had has been spent on legal fees.

In desperation, the sisters take their old friend to a car boot sale and sell her beloved collection of designer clothes, right down to the shoes on her feet.

That's when Essex beauty Amy Childs will make her cameo.

Playing herself, Amy wants some of Dorien's cast-offs only it's much to the nosey neighbour's disgust.

Sharon soon finds that looking after Dorien's every wish is a full time job and with money tight, the odd bit of cash from Amy is not enough - Dorien will have to start earning too.

Last week Birds of a Feather pulled in an average of 7.8 million viewers as the Essex-based sitcom returned to TV screens after 16 years.

Having got Tracey, Sharon and Dorien back under the same roof in the first episode, it's necessary to shake up the dynamic a bit now. So realising she's broke, Dorien is forced to sell her designer wardrobe at - shock horror - an Essex car boot sale (where, it looks like, TOWIE's Amy Childs shops) and then - even more shock horror - get a proper job.

The gags and their delivery are as subtle as a mallet to the head, but what's even more blatant is the number of product references: every other sentence name-checks a supermarket, a clothes shop, a high-street chemist, fashion designers, a department store or cleaning products.

Channel 4's ill-fated 10 O'Clock Live was an experiment worth conducting, but ultimately suffered from uncertainty over tone, material and personnel. Charlie Brooker's contributions, however, seldom let the side down, drawn as they frequently were in both style and content from his occasional Screenwipe series on BBC Four.

This six-parter incorporates a bit of both, blending archive hilarity with current affairs, TV with computer games and short films with studio interviews. Fear not, however: the latter seem more likely to involve the likes of Doug Stanhope and Barry Shitpeas than Amy Childs or Jamie Cullen. With the second series imminent of his excellent mini-series of futureshock dramas, Black Mirror, the only danger for Brooker and his relentlessly mordant wit may be overexposure.

Renton Skinner's grubby-looking alter ego is unlikely to trouble Partridge or Norton for the comedy talk-show crown, but his strange on-stage universe is convincingly complete: everywhere you look there's faded glory and drooping props. The guests who run the gauntlet of animal-lifting and quick-fire questions tonight are TOWIE's Amy Childs and tattooed rapper Professor Green, with Gabby Logan and Ulrika Jonsson for brief moments of glamour.

You'd expect this show to be shambolic - that's partly the point. But this is a real dog's breakfast. The skits are too many and the laughs too few, while Angelos lacks either the venom to demolish a guest or the variety of approach to deconstruct one. Tonight's star, Amy Childs, makes for a self-evidently soft target and she's a good sport, but the 'vajazzle' phenomenon is venerable enough to be beyond satire. Best mate Gupta outstays his welcome and the Gabby Logan skits are already looking tired (although a cameo from old flame Ulrika is a nice touch), while Professor Green's contribution is minimal. Dan Skinner is a great comic performer, but this doesn't feel like the best vehicle for his talents: more than ever, Angelos seems more like a brilliant comic foil than convincing leading man.

Fleshing out Renton Skinner's bizarre plastic-bag wielding comedy creation Angelos Epithemiou for a half-hour chat-show format was always going to be a challenge, and tonight it leads to some uneven results. The Only Way Is Essex's Amy Childs squirms on the sofa while being interviewed by the offbeat host, while rapper Professor Green is - for reasons unknown - asked to lift a giant tortoise above his head before being allowed to perform his latest hit. Among the chaos there's a welcome visit from Skinner's erstwhile Shooting Stars colleague Ulrika Jonsson.

This week's guests on Angelos's demented chat show are ex-Towie vajazzler Amy Childs and rapper Professor Green, while Gabby Logan and Ulrika Jonsson are also permitted to bask in his reflected glory. Logan, appearing throughout the series as Angelos's love interest, even gets the offer of having "a little fiddle about". Try as you might, it's impossible not to crack under his persistence, and though the overly sincere music number is a thumping mismatch, it doesn't detract from what is in places a very fine show.

Impressionists Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott are so talented that their middling material is compensated for by the sheer pleasure of watching them work. The show sets itself up as a satire of celebrity culture but it's a weak one at that. Instead, simply sit back and enjoy Robinson and Mynott's considerable skill at mimicry. Highlights include The Only Way is Essex airhead Amy Childs presenting the news.

This new impressionism show started on Channel 4 this week as part of a big comedy line up on the channel (along with 8 Out of 10 Cats, Alan Carr: Chatty Man and Stand Up For the Week).

It features Morgana Robinson and Terry Mynott impersonating a certain range of people. In this first episode there's heavyweight political figures but instead that particular class of usually pointless celebrity - the likes of Gordon Ramsey, Amy Childs and Danny Dyer.

Now for me impressionism usually has one big problem, which is trying to get the performer to look like the person they are pretending to be as well as getting to sound like them. That's why I think the best impressionism shows are Spitting Image and the radio version of Dead Ringers, because in both shows you don't see the performers, only the image in your head, or the rubbery visage.

In terms of this show, I'm not the best to judge the quality of the impressions, although that's because I tend not to watch most of the shows that those particular people perform in. I've never watched The Voice or Embarrassing Bodies, so I don't really know what Jessie J or Dr. Christian Jessen sound like.

However, in terms of the ideas that were generated, I found them to be good. I liked the sketch in which David Attenborough was observing Frankie Boyle in his natural habitat, and Fearne Cotton's children's game show in which kids try to act like celebrities.

If I were to be more critical I'd say that the satire isn't as hard hitting as it could be. It's not as vicious as Spitting Image was, so it's more akin to Dead Ringers in that respect. But still, it's a decent enough programme and should do well in my opinion...