Jimmy Carr

The Marriage Ref was too dreary for primetime

The Marriage Ref appointed Jimmy Carr, James Cordon and Lorraine Kelly as 'marriage refs' in a prizeless, pointless and punishing hour of television.

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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."

This now long-running Channel 4 panel game has seen some changes over the years. In this series, Jon Richardson has replaced Jason Manford as team captain; the opening round, "What Are You Talking About?", also now only covers the top three most talked about things in Britain as opposed to the original five. The other major change is that the total scores are no longer mentioned, with host Jimmy Carr now simply saying who's won, rather like Mock the Week.

The one major problem I have with 8 Out of 10 Cats is that almost every time there is always one guest who you'd rather not have on the programme. I went through the panel before the show began thinking to myself: "Russell Kane - established, award winning comic and deserves to be on. Josh Widdicombe - a relatively unknown comic who can use this appearance as his big break. Rachel Riley - well, as someone who regularly co-presents Countdown she has experience of quiz formats. Alex Reid - oh, damn!"

However, having said that, I did enjoy the fact that Reid didn't take himself too seriously, taking part in some pretty self-deprecating humour. However, the guest comics, as to be expected, did perform better; Kane's story about a woman he accidentally offended on a train was a particular highlight.

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.

Stay away from the new series of the dependably funny comedy panel show if you only watch it for team captain Jason Manford, because he's gone. In his seat is former 6 Music presenter and comedian Jon Richardson. The neurotic comic is one of the finest on the circuit. Still, it's only recently that he's made big enough waves to bag slots on Live at the Apollo, plus various guest spots on quiz shows. Richardson will almost definitely jell with host Jimmy Carr and fellow captain Sean Lock. But even if he doesn't, you'll eat up his cynical observations and snigger at his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. And the fact that he lives in Swindon.

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).

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