Bob Mortimer

After a seven-year hiatus - aside from last year's so-so Christmas special - the madcap quiz show returns for a sixth series. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are once again at the helm, while Little Britain's Matt Lucas returns as the ever-excitable George Dawes, the man with the scores. Joining team captains Jack Dee - who replaces Will Self from the last series in 2002 - and Ulrika Jonsson this week are The One Show's Christine Bleakley, 21-year-old pop star DJ Ironik and comedians Paddy McGuinness and Dan Skinner, the latter of whom appears in the guise of a Greek burger van owner called Angelos Epithemiou.

The show, which first aired in 1993, has always divided opinion: many have found it refreshingly quirky, while others believe it to be just annoyingly bizarre.

Certainly, the aficionados will be pleased to hear that its basic format is staying true to its roots. Sadly, though, the surreal, frenetic humour which characterised Shooting Stars in its heyday now feels a little stale - and perhaps slightly forced. Nevertheless, the show still has its moments. Reeves's shameless leering and harassment of a game Bleakley, in particular, will draw a smile. The highlight of tonight's series opener, however, is the appearance of comic newcomer Epithemiou, whose lugubrious style is such that it makes the cranky and deadpan Jack Dee seem comparatively sprightly.

After a one-off Christmas special, someone had the bright idea of bringing back Shooting Stars for a new series. It was an odd decision, as this surreal, not-a-panel-game feels threadbare and tired. Sadly, time has not been kind. Team captains Jack Dee and Ulrika Jonsson do their best, but they don't have much to work with. The guests, particularly The One Show's Christine Bleakley, are game and do their best but it's a slog. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer still have their moments, of course; Reeves's impressions of an unintelligible club singer are still funny; and it's good to see Matt Lucas again as the excitable big baby George Dawes. At least he looks like he's having fun. But generally the humour is too scatological and the madness that characterised Shooting Stars in its heyday and which made the show feel fresh and unlike anything else, now feels forced.

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You know just what you're getting with Does the Team Think..., Radio 2's quiz game - Bob Mortimer and Ulrika Jonsson are panellists, and it's all held together by host Vic Reeves's surreal whimsy, so it's basically Shooting Stars remade for the airwaves. Not that this means it's unsuccessful - its half-hour of panellists fielding unlikely questions from the studio audience passes in congenial fashion, with the fact that its participants are old friends making things very cosy (in a good way). Jonsson comes in for lots of flak from her pals - after she confessed to a horror of reading instruction manuals, Reeves chipped in: "Couldn't you get a man round to do it? And then marry him?", but she was more than equal to the task of sending herself up. Asked if she uses slaves in her house, she suggested, "My husbands?"

We were big fans of the Vic Reeves / Bob Mortimer comedy 'quiz' show and, although this revival made us laugh, it didn't make us feel the need to march on the BBC demanding that it is reinstated to the schedules.

While we're on the subject of wilful stupidity, BBC2 was celebrating the legacy of Shooting Stars, the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer game show. Shooting Stars: the Inside Story was an engaging retrospective, which made it clear how much fun everybody had at the time (and wasn't Ulrika pretty?). It made me annoyed at not having watched it more regularly. But then along came All New Shooting Stars, a strained attempt to revive the fun, with everybody looking older and tireder, and a depressing sense that entertaining the audience came a long way down the list of priorities.

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer first hosted their anarchic celebrity quiz show in 1993. The first of two programmes marking the show's 15th anniversary tonight is a documentary about the making of it - and, like Shooting Stars itself, the film is funny, eccentric and a little self-indulgent. Interspersed with interviews with some of the celebrities who found themselves subjected to Reeves' and Mortimer's particular kind of comedy (which veered from the surreal to the mildly offensive), the presenters themselves play various crew members reminiscing about their time working behind the scenes. This is a suitably unique way to contemplate a programme which Martine McCutcheon calls 'bizarre' and of which Larry Hagman said, "I've done some loony shows in my time but this is certainly the one."

Shooting Stars launched the career of Matt Lucas - who played scorekeeper George Dawes before he went on to global fame with David Walliams in Little Britain - and latterly also co-starred the often self-confessedly drunken comic Johnny Vegas.

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Mortimer might be the first serious contender for Bill Bailey's captaincy and his sweet demeanour, mixed with occasional amazement of how ridiculous this quiz really is, could make him a hit. However, his reluctance to show off any musical prowess could turn him into Amstell's stooge, which I'd hate to see happen to such a respected entertainer.

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