Charlie Brooker

I was fully expecting last week's series opener to not be much cop (I'm not as big a fan of Charlie Brooker as many others I know), but this was a real hoot.

After last week's patchy opener, let's hope that the quality of Charlie Brooker's latest TV-will-eat-itself improves substantially this week. I can't help feeling that the scrappy quiz format holds this back from being a scabrous discussion about the highs and lows of the week's television. Maybe the viewer interaction will help - all week, Brooker and his team have been compiling viewer observations about Torchwood: Children of Earth.

TV Review: You Have Been Watching

The show was laugh-out-loud funny and filled with the right mix of bile and fun. I imagine this must have been quite annoying for those of you out there itching to start a Brooker backlash. It certainly seems that Charlie Brooker can't make a bad television show as I'm rather excited at the prospect of watching the rest of this series!

Charlie Brooker rarely puts a foot wrong but this 'Quiz' style series didn't seem to work.

What was good about it? Charlie's review of BBC1's The One Show, which hit every mark and made us really wish we were watching Screenwipe instead of this odd new series. The clips from American manly TV Deadliest Warrior which were so bad they raised the only true of the smile of the programme were also funny.

But what was bad about it? Perhaps our expectations were too high for this but it just felt thrown together with very little point. Did we really care who won the game? Of course not! Just review the series! We couldn't help but think that if Charlie Brooker didn't host this there's a massive chance he'd rip it to shreads on Screenwipe.

Charlie Brooker: 'I'm not that psychotic'

Best known for shows such as Screenwipe and Newswipe, on which he lambasts TV, Charlie Brooker goes mainstream from tonight with new Channel 4 show You Have Been Watching.

With Harry Hill's TV Burp on its summer vacation, critic, comedian and Dead Set creator Charlie Brooker steps in to help fill the television round-up void - which is rather like asking Hannibal Lecter to look after your new kitten while you go caravanning in Rhyl. In Charlie's new panel show, fans of Screenwipe and Newswipe - his two BBC4 series - will know to expect some joyfully caustic slapdowns at the expense of programming from both the UK and around the world. Viewers can expect to see an edgier guest line-up than the BBC will field in their Telly Addicts update - As Seen On TV - which starts later this month.

If you're not aware of Charlie Brooker through his Screenwipe show on BBC4, then imagine someone stood in the corner of your front room who reacts every time you flick to a different show. These reactions range from staring at you as if you've just tried to douse a trouser fire by pouring on petrol, to slapping your cheeks and calling you a lint-brained disgrace to DNA. That's pretty much what'll happen in this review of the week's telly.

Suddenly, TV about TV is all the rage. Harry Hill's TV Burp may be off air for now, but next week BBC1 plans a new Telly Addicts-style quiz show called As Seen on TV. Meanwhile, this Channel 4 offering promises to be more left-field. Anyone who's seen Charlie Brooker's withering take on our nation's television, courtesy of BBC4's Screenwipe and Newswipe series, will know what to expect: cruel clips, ingenious put-downs and vented spleen, only this time in a panel-game format. When RT went to press, the show hadn't yet been recorded and the guests were unconfirmed (we're promised David Mitchell and Frank Skinner later in the series), but with Brooker in the driving seat, it should be worth a look.

The London Paper Preview

TV's most savage critic will pose the questions in a new panel quiz show. The London Paper asks Charlie Brooker whether his guests should be worried.

Charlie Brooker Time Out Interview

Charlie Brooker, Guardian TV columnist and increasingly recognisable telly face in his own right, is taking another satirical swipe at small-screen cliches. This time he's using the medium of a panel show, as host of Channel 4's You Have Been Watching. He walks us through his latest TV hell...