Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice

This was another program bursting with good quality entertainment and laughs. I have followed all of Peter Kay's work and each program or series is more diverse and original than the previous. Peter Kay never seems to disappoint, and from the moment I had first seen the advertising I couldn't wait for this. Peter Kay is hilarious as Geraldine McQueen, is surrounded by other brilliant performances and has acquired the services of many other celebrities for cameo roles. This is an almost "comic relief" style show which is always guaranteed to have many funny parts. This was a real treat and I would recommend it to anyone in search of a really good laugh.

Well, if there were every any proof needed that the reason Phoenix Nights was funny was because of Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice it was last nights horrendously unfunny broadcast for the bewildered. Channel 4 rolls in Peter Kay to state the obvious and show us that far from being able to muster up comedy on the fly, like say Ricky Gervais or Jimmy Carr, He spends years making something fit for the bargain bins at blockbusters along with all the live dvds of his repeated performances.

All in all proof of a man who managed to get together a decent set of gags and perform one good show....and take the credit for his obviously more talented writing team.

Haven't seen very much of Peter Kay's past work (love his John Smith ads!), but anything or anyone taking a pot-shot at the UK's current depressing and seemingly never-ending fascination for reality TV's pop-idol making machine will get my attention and if done well, vote. Trouble here is that in this apparently updated for Christmas special, I'm not sure if Kay loves or loathes his target subject and for me he really has to make up his mind. If anything, in fact, I suspect the former, as we get endless numbers of him in wardrobe-busting frocks "dragging"-out one big production-number after another ad-nauseum. The joke works at first as he hilariously takes on songs no diva should touch (a point ironically driven home by subsequent events with 2008 X-Factor winner Alexandra's Burke's desecration of Leonard Cohen's anthemic "Jerusalem" - talk about life imitating art!) but this soon grates although it may of course be his own post-ironical statement on the tedious stretching out of all the Pop-Idol/X Factor/Britain's Got talent shows over endless weeks - I'm kidding of course, I don't think Kay's that clever! It's not escaped my notice either that the "Winner's Song" Kay trills here has been released to the general public (and naturally is high on the Xmas charts as I write). Kay would like us to think he's accurately lambasting the whole, to my way of thinking, odious bigging up of pub-standard karaoke wannabe singers to mega-stardom (Leona Lewis anyone?), but despite occasionally hitting home with necessarily tasteless and therefore slightly shocking moments with performances by a dwarf boy-band or part-disabled boy/girl band (the joke's all in their name - "2 Up 2 Down") and getting some major celebrity help (from Sir Paul McCartney no less), you know that the hand that feeds isn't going to get bitten too hard here. McCartney gets well rewarded for his time, with no fewer than three of his career-worst songs getting dusted off en-route ("Ebony and Ivory", "The Frog Chorus" and "Wonderful Christmastime"...more post-ironic satire perhaps but I fear again that both Kay and Macca think these are all wonderful tunes ripe for re-discovery, even with a laugh and a joke!). Of course I've never watched any of the original source reality shows but you just try to avoid them on your TV, on-line browser or daily newsstand once they get into their swing... I didn't laugh enough here to make me overlook that I'd effectively been conned into watching a too close-for-comfort and far too reverential tibute to reality TV.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

In a world where an unwinnable war claims casualties every day, a recession is causing the national debt to soar and the price of living to go up and people are basically struggling to make ends meet, a lot of people must get sick and tired of being constantly bombarded with magazines and newspapers devoting tonnes of news space to comparatively unimportant stuff like who's going to win The X Factor and the crazy antics of the finalists. This overblown, over bearing programme bombards our telly viewing most Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and can't seem to leave the mainstream media alone either. Peter Kay is obviously one such person who can't stand it all, and is the brains behind this largely misfiring spoof of the whole thing.

He plays Irish tea lady cum transsexual Geraldine McQueen who is one of three who make it to the finals, including north eastern scally wag R Wayne (Mark Pickering) and Two Up Two Down involving two standing men and two wheelchair bound women. The show sends up the tricks of shows like The X Factor, with their heart tugging family tragedy stories to try and get the sympathy vote, to subtle digs at the vote rigging scandals that have dogged the recent talent shows, as well as the corny quips the judges (in this case talent supremos Dr. Fox, Nikki Chapman and Pete Waterman, obviously keen to send their own profession up) come out with. None of it manages to be that funny though. From what I've seen Phoenix Nights is still Kay's funniest hour. **

I was looking forward to this as I am a huge fan of Peter Kay. But this prog was just a bit too 'normal' when considering the sort of people you get on the 'real' pop factor sort of programmes.

It was very well observed, but there was too much singing for my liking (one of the main reasons I don't watch these programmes on a Saturday night), and the simple fact is that the parodies of the people who go on these programmes just seemed too real... even the most extreme parodies were just like the people you see on the genuine programmes.

And by the time I had heard Cat Deeley say "Britain's Got the Pop Factor ... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice" for the 30th time I was getting a bit bored.

A good effort, but considering the freakish nature of the contestants on the genuine programme that are constantly on Saturday night TV, it just seemed like another 'talent' show as opposed to a highly anticipated spoof. Shame.