Rob Brydon

Review: The Guess List

Unfortunately, no matter how entertaining some of Rob Brydon's chit-chat can be with the famous guests, The Guess List falls apart because it's not a particularly fun game and the time drags.

I quite enjoyed The Guess List, hosted by the fantastic Rob Brydon. Awkward moments aside, the jokes were consistent and it was a pretty harmless, pleasant show. What was made apparent from this first, rather tentative episode was that nobody really seemed to understand what was going on. Everyone seemed a bit confused, but happy all the same, like an extremely drunk aunt at a birthday party. To be honest, most of the show is just waffle and fodder. Don't get me wrong, it's good waffle and fodder, but it is definitely an odd format.

Radio Times review

The comic riffs and bickering are lower-key this week. We start with Rob Brydon waking up in bed next to the blonde girl from the last episode, the one on the yacht, and we gather from the expletives he's not best pleased with himself. Perhaps that helps things take a mournful turn, as he and travelling companion Steve Coogan reflect on Shelley's funeral pyre and death generally.

In one of his extended flights of fancy, Rob imagines Steve on his deathbed, so incapacitated he can't even grope his attractive nurse. As if to retaliate (and there's a lot of that) Steve later reflects on his "semi-justified reputation for being something of a lothario".

But over and above the nicely observed riffs on ageing and celebrity there are, of course, the impressions: this week Steve reads the guide book as first James Mason and then, brilliantly, Neil Kinnock. Plus, "Roger Moore sings the very best of Alanis Morissette".

The second series of The Trip sends Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan around Italy in the footsteps of Byron and Shelley - albeit travelling by open-top Mini Cooper and luxury sailing ship crewed by shapely, twentysomething posh girls - for more semi-improvised adventures as would-be food critics.

Once I had wiped away the mist of envy from my eyes and choked back the bile of resentment that invariably rises whenever I see the licence fee used to send celebrities to exotic locations, I rather enjoyed The Trip to Italy. The concept is inherently self-indulgent, but the two stars are undeniably good company, and there is something pleasantly relaxing about the gentle pace at which it plays out.

There are moments of high comedy, as the pair play versions of themselves as incorrigible impressionist show-offs - if you ever wanted to know what Roger Moore playing Tony Blair interrogating Saddam Hussein as Frank Spencer would sound like, this is the show for you. But there are also beautifully observed exchanges from two performers far too skilled at improvisation ever to push too hard for a laugh. As a result, their onscreen comic chemistry comes over as spontaneous, authentic and rather touching.

Ostensibly writing a food column for the Observer, Brydon and Coogan travel, banter, bicker, dine, drink and trade impersonations on an endless, unhurried loop. The format hasn't changed at all from the first series, but the weather certainly has, and so has the menu. Italy, and its food, looks glorious. If, at any point, you should tire of Messrs Brydon and Coogan's babblings, you can always try watching the programme with the sound off.

Rob Brydon's legendary geniality is exploited as the host of BBC1's new Saturday-evening game show The Guess List, in which a panel of celebrities help two contestants to answer a wide variety of wacky questions. Sound familiar? It is so obviously a rehash of Blankety Blank, it is a mystery why they didn't just call it that and be done with it.

The celebrities, it has to be said, are top-notch. That is to say, I had heard of all of them. But having recruited guests of such high calibre as Jennifer Saunders, Simon Callow and James Corden, the show gave them practically nothing to do, while the host hardly let them get a word in. Brydon was manic to the point of hyperactive from the off, and never eased up for a second. It was as though he felt a single-handed responsibility to keep the programme going - yet the more frantic his efforts, the more uncomfortable the viewing experience.

In The Trip to Italy, Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan took their competitive impersonation skills to a new level when one of them impersonated Saddam Hussein impersonating Frank Spencer, and the other impersonated Roger Moore impersonating Tony Blair.

I lost track of who was which, but it was virtuoso stuff. Meanwhile they were eating the greatest of Italian food while surrounded with British upmarket honey-blonde chalet girls.

More mature by the episode, Steve retired to bed alone for a nap. Rob pulled one of the girls but might have dished his chances by showing her a picture of his daughter. By now the chaps are so well established in their characters that they can do uncharacteristic things. I have seldom seen a British comedy series quite so inventive.

The show was essentially a take on the classic Blankety Blank as two contestants answer a series of mundane questions alongside a panel of famous faces. However, The Guest List sees the panel answer the question first before the contestant can then agree with one of their answers or choose their own.

The highlight of the entire show though is the presentation style of host Rob Brydon, who realises how ludicrous the entire programme is. It's clear that the producers have given Brydon a lot of leeway as he appears to be ad-libbing for large sections of the programme. Due to Brydon's light-hearted style his interaction with the celebrity guests doesn't feel forced and I do think that these segments could've been excruciating when put into the hands of a less jovial host.

Brydon bounced especially well off James Corden due to their existing chemistry as Gavin & Stacey co-stars while gymnast Louis Smith essentially became a performing monkey as he was tasked with both singing and dancing. But the surprise of the evening was the participation of Simon Callow who isn't your stereotypical BBC One panel show star. Callow's tremendous laugh coupled with some of his more outlandish answers made him the perfect foil for Brydon and the two played off each other magnificently.

The tone of most of the questions was slightly suggestive and as this was a pre-watershed programme there was a little bit of smut thrown in. My big criticism was of the format itself, with not one of the celebrities helping the contestants with an answer all evening. But, at the end of the day, that didn't really matter as I found The Guess List to be perfect Saturday night entertainment that didn't ask too much of me as a viewer and provided plenty of laughter throughout.

Say what you like about Rob Brydon - and I certainly plan to - but he hosts a brain-ruining celebrity quiz show with aplomb. Those hours spent remaining cheerful while dining opposite Steve Coogan's wet-weekend-in-Ancoats face on The Trip to Italy are certainly paying dividends.

How bad is The Guess List (BBC1)? It's as likely as Michael McIntyre's chatshow to make it to a second series. It makes Would I Lie to You?, Brydon's other quiz show, seem like a work of shattering genius.

That said, I couldn't look away. "How lovely to be this close to a fox and not worry it's going to sniff round your bins," said Brydon introducing his first celebrity guest, Emilia Fox. "I speak for everybody when I say I loved The Vicar of Dibley," he said, introducing Jennifer Saunders. He went on with similar amiable insults to the other usual suspects (Simon Callow, Louis Smith, James Corden), while they kept their smiles mirthlessly frozen. If there isn't yet a Bafta for best rictus in quiz show adversity, it is only a matter of time.

The idea is, five celebrities come up with a plausible answer to a question, and then two contestants have to decide which, if any of those suggestions, is most plausible. For example: "According to a poll, what should old people do three times a week to help them live longer?" "Tango," said Callow, insanely. "Orgasm," said Corden, sensibly. "Exercise," said Smith, boringly. The answer? Oh come on! It's have sex.

Only one of the contestants seemed to have trouble with The Guess List's concept. Naturally, she won. But then she also told us she'd moved from Birmingham to Australia after watching Wanted Down Under, which is the very definition of madness.

Celebrity input seemed so superfluous that the show could readily have been renamed Pointless Celebrities. Here's my question: "Which of the following collective nouns is the odd one out: A) murder of crows; B) whoop of gorillas; C) busyness of ferrets; D) pointlessness of celebrities?" Answer: D) I want to hear more from the other three.

The Guess List, TV review

Rob Brydon has a surprisingly rare, but commercially valuable, ability to be both granny-friendly and genuinely funny.

Rob Brydon interview

"I showed that to Anthony Hopkins, me impersonating him, when I was in LA recently and it was bizarre to see him watching it on a laptop and laughing away."