Jim Davidson

Unfunny chirpy, cheeky Cockney Jim Davidson was a huge ITV star in the late 70s and 1980s. They gave him two sitcoms: Up the Elephant and Round the Castle (1983-85) in which he played chirpy, cheeky, Cockney, chauffeur Jim London and its sequel Home, James (1987-90). Both were about as funny as a wet weekend in Wigan.

It takes an awful lot to make you pine for Jim Davidson, but Graham Norton damn near managed it with Generation Fame. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this whole dismal exercise was that you knew exactly what it was going to be like beforehand, and yet the Generation Fame still had enough goodwill in the tank to make you give it a go.

Many, many things go clean over my head. But Jim Davidson's Generation Game (BBC1) is the first thing that's ever gone under it. As a child, I watched Larry Grayson's tenure, and found the programme dull but easy to follow. Now it's transformed into something I simply don't understand.