Geri Halliwell

Russell Brand dating Geri Halliwell

Geri, 40, and Russell, 37, were 'seen getting close after the Olympics closing ceremony' where both performed.

Lauren Laverne hates fake tans, square plates and flags ("Nothing good ever came out of a flag: racism, nationalism, Geri Halliwell at the Brits"). Larry Lamb isn't happy about all those trendy, confusing loo signs ("Save it for the jury," retorts host Frank Skinner). And comedian David O'Doherty doesn't like the age 35 - "the first truly disappointing age." "I once went to an 18-30s do," says Skinner. "I got completely mixed up and went as Lord Alfred Tennyson." He's here all week.

Hosted by Dermot O'Leary, The Marriage Ref invites married couples to air their domestic differences before a live studio audience, while a celebrity panel offers advice and adjudication.

These aren't the sort of grievances that threaten relationships, nor even perverse sexual demands, but quaint foibles about which the panel can make humorous comments. Episode one featured a husband who compulsively pickles vegetables and a wife who communicates by Post-it notes.

The Marriage Ref is frothy, undemanding and, paradoxically, so inoffensive it causes offence. I took against it almost immediately, despite the participation of two fine comedians, Jimmy Carr and Sarah Millican. Unfortunately, the triumvirate was completed by former Spice Girl and UN Goodwill Ambassador Geri Halliwell, a woman who tries to compensate for absence of wit through excessive volume. "You're funny, you're funny," she screamed at Carr. "Yes," Carr snapped back, his own goodwill evaporating by the second, "It's my job."

I don't understand why American critics took so vehemently against The Marriage Ref, created by Jerry Seinfeld. On the strength of this ITV remake, it looks like harmless fluff.

Or maybe the harmlessness was the reason for the critics' harshness. Maybe the Americans expected Seinfeld to come up with something edgier and more substantial than a comedy panel game in which three celebrities pass jokey judgements on minor marital spats.

The US version, despite savage reviews, has limped to a second series. The only reason for its survival seems to be Seinfeld's ability to fill the panel with heavyweight celebrity pals like Madonna, Alec Baldwin and Ricky Gervais.

Their counterparts for this version were considerably less starry: comedians Sarah Millican and Jimmy Carr (clearly we don't see enough of him on television), and, as host Dermot O'Leary described her, "British pop and yoga royalty" Geri Halliwell.

I can't see this version making it beyond a single series. The domestic disputes are barely disputes at all and there's nothing at stake, not even a cash prize.

Saturday's participants were a middle-aged Tom Jones impersonator who's fed up with his wife leaving him "to do" lists; a young woman who wants her 31-year-old clown of a husband to grow up and stop hanging out with teenage skateboarders; and a lovely, octogenarian couple, married for 53 years, who are having a genteel disagreement over the husband's habit of making endless jars of pickles (cue some patronising "oohing" and "aahing" from the studio audience).

Hardly the stuff of Relate counselling. In a TV landscape coarsened beyond belief by the likes of Jeremy Kyle, The Marriage Ref doesn't stand a chance.

The Marriage Ref (ITV, Saturday) is a new show in which couples air their differences in front of a panel (one of whom is UN ambassador Geri Halliwell) and a live studio audience. It's gentler than Jerry Springer - a lot gentler. So we're not talking things such as: it turns out my wife isn't just a man but my father. This is more like: my husband's pickles take up too much space in the cupboards, but actually I don't really mind. I can't see Marriage Ref: the Opera getting made, to be honest.

Dermot O'Leary hosts this noisy new entertainment show, which sees real-life couples air their marital tiffs in front of a three-strong celebrity panel. It's a format devised by US comedian Jerry Seinfeld; the American version, which aired Stateside last year, featured such guests as Madonna and Tina Fey. ITV will be hoping its feisty arguments prove palatable to British audiences: they've ordered a seven-week series and booked guests including Jimmy Carr, Geri Halliwell and Jonathan Ross (him again).

Seinfeld's 'God-awful' game show arrives in Britain

It crashed and burned in the US but surely Geri Halliwell and co can work their magic on The Marriage Ref here...