Shooting Stars

So, Shooting Stars returned to our screens last night and for me, there was a lot riding on it. The show had been one of my favourite things in the history of telly and revisiting it could have been suicide for the show. However, Vic and Bob still have a penchant for the ridiculous, so there wasn't too much to worry about... right? After watching the latest offering, back after a so-so Christmas special, last night proved to be more of the same.

Kicking off with the good, the New Shooting Stars felt comfortingly familiar. The Dove From Above, Vic perving over the Pretty Guest, the oddball contraptions, George Dawes' song and the pisstake homage to something from the world of pop culture... it was all there and for the most part, pretty decent. Not uniformly brilliant, but decent all the same.

The biggest laugh (personally) came with a puerile, gross-out joke, which saw Vic unveiling his skiddy underpants to The One Show's Christine Bleakley, who clearly didn't know what the hell to do. Nor did the rest of the studio, which has always been the calling card of Shooting Stars. Everything falls apart and you feel a bit drunk whilst it is all going off around your ears.

However... some parts of the show dragged a bit. Like a snake wearing a nappy filled with boiled cabbage. Vic looked a little tired, leaving Bob to provide the octane. One joke made me grimace (not in a good way). Yep. The one about "Enid Brighton" That was followed up with Ray Kay Rowring and, to be honest, I've always expected more from this pairing. For a duo that could pluck a joke from absolutely nowhere, to lean on Foreign People Talk Funny Don't They? jokes is a let-down. You wouldn't like it if Jim Davidson told it.

However, at times, it was typically brilliant from Vic and Bob. Bob's "loooving you, is easy coz your boobs are new" at Ulrika was great fun and the endgame was pleasantly odd. Yet at other times, it felt like Elvis in Vegas, with people gamely clapping along to the old hits whilst a slightly tubby man didn't quite nail it like he used to.

With any luck, they're finding their stride again and as the new series continues, it'll hit vintage form again. I hope so at any rate.

Last night's TV

Why, I wondered, has Shooting Stars returned? And then I watched it - and laughed non-stop.

Stellar comeback for Shooting Stars

Vic and Bob were back on BBC2 with a bang last night as revived panel show Shooting Stars grabbed an impressive 2.7m (13.7% share) at 10pm.

After a seven-year hiatus - aside from last year's so-so Christmas special - the madcap quiz show returns for a sixth series. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are once again at the helm, while Little Britain's Matt Lucas returns as the ever-excitable George Dawes, the man with the scores. Joining team captains Jack Dee - who replaces Will Self from the last series in 2002 - and Ulrika Jonsson this week are The One Show's Christine Bleakley, 21-year-old pop star DJ Ironik and comedians Paddy McGuinness and Dan Skinner, the latter of whom appears in the guise of a Greek burger van owner called Angelos Epithemiou.

The show, which first aired in 1993, has always divided opinion: many have found it refreshingly quirky, while others believe it to be just annoyingly bizarre.

Certainly, the aficionados will be pleased to hear that its basic format is staying true to its roots. Sadly, though, the surreal, frenetic humour which characterised Shooting Stars in its heyday now feels a little stale - and perhaps slightly forced. Nevertheless, the show still has its moments. Reeves's shameless leering and harassment of a game Bleakley, in particular, will draw a smile. The highlight of tonight's series opener, however, is the appearance of comic newcomer Epithemiou, whose lugubrious style is such that it makes the cranky and deadpan Jack Dee seem comparatively sprightly.

Shooting Stars will continue to polarise opinion more than any other show on television. Larry Hagman appeared on it once as a guest and said afterwards, "I've done some loony shows in my time..." For many viewers, this is the ultimate crazed panel show exploding with madcap, surreal humour. Others just find it irritatingly daft. The new series is back by popular demand, hosted by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, with Jack Dee and Ulrika Jonsson as team captains and Matt Lucas - still dressed as a baby - keeping the scores. Given the frantic energy and decibel level, it benefits enormously from the mournful presence of Jack Dee and his trademark scowl. But the highlight of the evening is Dan Skinner in the guise of a rancid Greek burger bar owner called Angelos Epithemious, who steals the show with a fully formed character and the deadest of deadpan comic performances.

Vic, Bob and George Dawes are back, older but definitely no wiser. This opener to the new series of the gloriously daft quiz has Matt Lucas singing about old people's homes, Bob Mortimer 'revealing' the name of Amy Winehouse's favourite Tube station, DJ Ironik failing to remember the breed of his dog and Christine Bleakley enduring Vic's thigh-rubbing. Plus the Dove From Above is back, as is Ulrika-kaka (pitted against other team captain Jack Dee). Wednesday nights just got a whole lot funnier.

After a one-off Christmas special, someone had the bright idea of bringing back Shooting Stars for a new series. It was an odd decision, as this surreal, not-a-panel-game feels threadbare and tired. Sadly, time has not been kind. Team captains Jack Dee and Ulrika Jonsson do their best, but they don't have much to work with. The guests, particularly The One Show's Christine Bleakley, are game and do their best but it's a slog. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer still have their moments, of course; Reeves's impressions of an unintelligible club singer are still funny; and it's good to see Matt Lucas again as the excitable big baby George Dawes. At least he looks like he's having fun. But generally the humour is too scatological and the madness that characterised Shooting Stars in its heyday and which made the show feel fresh and unlike anything else, now feels forced.

Back in 1993, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer cornered the market in surreal self-indulgence with their infectious take on the celebrity panel show. After a one-off special last December to mark its 15th anniversary, Shooting Stars is back again with a full series and a mix of old and new faces.

In the special, Jack Dee took over the mantle of grumpy team captain as first patented by Mark Lamarr and he returns once more opposite Ulrika Jonsson. Surprisingly perhaps, given that his own star has now eclipsed the hosts, Matt Lucas is back behind his drum kit as George Dawes with the scores.

The new, regular addition to this series is a character called Angelos Epithemiou, who's introduced as an ordinary member of the public and burger-van owner but, in reality, is comedian Dan Skinner.

Otherwise, the familiar catchphrases are dusted off, the Dove From Above flies again and The One Show's Christine Bleakley draws the short straw this week as the object of Vic Reeves' disturbing attentions.

Some TV revivals reek of desperation. But this one works beautifully, hitting its stride so effectively from the start that it's hard to imagine it's been off our screens (at least as a regular BBC2 fixture) for 12 years.

Hosts Vic and Bob clearly relish this chance to resume the madness, as does original captain Ulrika Jonsson, while Ulrika's grumpy new rival skipper Jack Dee takes to the role with ease.

All the familiar stuff is back - catchphrases, Dove From Above, Matt Lucas as big drum-bashing baby George Dawes - so if you loved it then, you'll love it now.

An incredible 16 years since the pilot (what were you doing in the autumn of 1993?) this celebrity panel show - arguably the greatest but surely the quirkiest ever - is back with a six-part run. It's helmed, of course, by Vic and Bob, with Ulrika-ka-ka and Jack Dee as captains and man-baby George Dawes on drums and scores. Award-winning burger van owner Angelos Epithemiou will also be a regular, while tonight's first victims - sorry, guests - are Christine Bleakley, Paddy McGuinness and DJ Ironik. Huge fun.