Jonathan Ross

Even with Jonathan Ross as a three hour warm-up man, Buy Me Up TV failed to coax the glimmer of a smile on to my face.

The talents of Doon Mackichan couldn't rescue Justin Edwards' and James Eldred's account of life behind the scenes at a 24-hour shopping channel.

Perhaps, judging that this setting has been the subject of numerous satires, the authors settled for a frenzied facsimile of life at the consumerist cutting edge. Everyone sounded barking, indeed on the verge of a nervous breakdown, perhaps because they had to cope with dialogue that could apparently only be delivered at ear-shattering volume. The audience laughter was strangely disturbing, as if they had been force fed E numbers before being manacled to their seats.

Moira Petty, The Stage, 21st May 2007

But the biggest flaw of all was the tone. Not being prudish here, but the whole show was obsessed with smut. Nothing wrong with that in essence of course, yet here it came over as really contrived and unoriginal, as well as actually being far from amusing. Every guest was forced to spend more or less their whole time in discussion about genitals or sex or other body parts.

Ian Jones, Off The Telly, 8th March 2002

But within all this clutter there was a lot of substance. A team of four writers provided more hits than misses in the way of jokes; and the whole show has retained that sharpness in delivery and response that can salvage the lamest of punchlines and the flakiest of interviews.

Ian Jones, Off The Telly, 2nd November 2001