Phillip Schofield

Saturday nigh''s strangest primetime distraction - an unsettling splice of The Generation Game and The Manchurian Candidate - continues. Pro mesmeriser Keith Barry puts five civilian contestants under before the cameras start rolling, enabling him to rewire their behaviour on the fly as they tackle a series of simple challenges in pursuit of a £25,000 prize. Smoothing over the most erratic behaviour is unflappable host Phillip Schofield, this week joined by superbike star Carl Fogarty and docile reality hunk Joey Essex.

For those of you lucky enough to miss the so-called entertainment show the first time around the basic premise of You're Back in the Room is that five members of the public attempt to win a large amount of money whilst being put under hypnosis. While it sounds like a sound enough idea for a small segment on a show such as Saturday Night Takeaway, rolling out to an hour was a mistake on its own. Host Phillip Schofield doesn't help matters by basically failing to keep a straight face during each challenge and basically having a lot of fun at the contestants' expense. Unfortunately Schofield forgets that his main job as the host is to keep up as at home entertained but rather it seems that only he, the studio audience and hypnotist Keith Barry are in on the joke. Barry himself is an odd character who has tried to build his role in the series to more than that of a lackey who gives the contestants zany things to do before each challenge. Furthermore it appears as if Barry has been told to involve Schofield more in the game meaning that he got the contestants do to a number of things to the host including writing him love letters and giving him the kiss of life. The reason for Barry's involvement is to hinder the contestants in their various challenges, five in total, so they win as little money as possible. But the fact they came away from the game with fifteen thousand pounds suggests to me that he didn't do his job very well. Instead the hypnosis is just a silly little gimmick to add on to what is basically just a bog-standard Saturday night game show and not a good one at that. This series seems intent on being more low-rent than its predecessor which was exemplified in a challenge which saw the contestants administer beauty treatments to the 'stars' of Loose Women. There's nothing of merit I can say about You're Back in the Room which is the complete antithesis to Ant and Dec's brilliant show which airs before it. Whilst the Geordie duo keep their audience engaged throughout, Philip and Keith seem intent on making us at home as drowsy as the contestants are pre-challenge. I'm just hoping that Keith stays away from the ITV executives as I'm sure hypnosis is the only way that this rubbish got recommissioned in the first place.

Phillip Schofield interview

"It's not bollocks. Hypnosis is used in medicine, patients have been hypnotised and not needed anaesthetic for operations. I was massively sceptical initially and decided I would only do the show if there was no element of fakery."

Although it was met with allegations of fakery when it first aired last year, the Phillip Schofield-fronted gameshow returns for a second run, with mesmerist Keith Barry once again claiming that he can coerce participants into doing the strangest of things. Indeed, series one saw him convince contestants that they were jockeys, bodybuilders and even X Factor contestants. It might provoke a few giggles but if you find that you're very, very sleepy and your eyelids are growing heavy that's probably boredom rather than hypnosis.

Keith Barry interview

You're Back In The Room hypnotist Keith Barry doesn't just use his brain-hacking skill to subject the likes of Phillip Schofield to wardrobe misery. He also uses it to get out of speeding tickets.

Picture: Phillip Schofield is covered in condiments

Filming of Phillip Schofield's You're Back In The Room descended into chaos when the hypnotised contestants ran riot and ruined the star's £2,000 suit.

You're Back in the Room: something close to delirium

Phillip Schofield's You're Back In The Room is significantly funnier than anything else on TV.

The five contestants were hypnotised and given silly tasks to perform -- like the Generation Game played in a trance. During a round of blowing up balloons and twisting them together, one chap grabbed a pink sausage-shaped inflatable and did something with it so vulgar that host Phillip Schofield had to block the camera angle with his body, seize the balloon and pop it.

It's hard to believe all the antics under hypnosis were really beyond the players' control. A cynic might even suspect that here were five raving extroverts taking full and conscious advantage of an opportunity to show off like mad on national TV, and win a few thousand quid in the process.

Phillip didn't exactly look as if he was enjoying it, but he coped gracefully. This format will quickly grow repetitive, though. In a few weeks, he'll need all his experience to cover up his boredom.