Sunday 25 August 2013

I Love My Country

I Love My Country

I Love My Country is a Saturday night programme, produced to provide "Saturday night entertainment". I enjoy it to an extent (in that it's so bad, it's funny) but it's also repetitive; it's exactly the same stuff every week. The rounds resonate repetition to the point where it's starting to get boring 4 weeks in. It's additionally ridiculously cheesy, reeks of desperation and is often cringe-worthy.

Gabby Logan, a second choice to present the programme, sums up the show with her ridiculous dancing and awful, stomach-turning "jokes". Frank Skinner's decent enough, Micky Flanagan just about scrapes the barrel, but both partake in false idol chit-chat with the contestants at the start. The point of this is quite unclear. It's occasionally funny but sometimes just a waste of time when you're wanting them to get on with the show. I'm not really arsed about Gemma Atkinson's relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, let alone the obvious diving joke after it by the very limited and unwitty Micky Flanagan.

Which brings me on to the caliber of the contestants. The likes of Helen Flanagan, Chelsee Healey and Greg Rutherford just don't belong on a "comedy" game show which tests general knowledge and wit. They're about as intelligent as Gabby Logan's jokes. There's a serious lack of genuinely funny and charismatic people on the programme full stop.

And never mind "patriotism", more like "patronizing". The overly-patriotic nature of it is repulsive. If a person from another country was watching that, they wouldn't admire our "proud to be British" attitude, they'd be mocking the sense of desperation and patronizing nature of our pride. The fact that Gabby Logan's dancing around all the time, there's cringey celebratory music played at every opportunity, the crowd jumping up and down and screaming all makes it stink of desperation and invites mockery because it's so over the top. If you were going to a barbeque you wouldn't go dressed as a comedy piece of meat with an "I love barbeques" hat on would you?

It's just way over the top and patronizing in that are we supposed to just think "this is great and really fun" just because as soon as it comes on everyone's dancing around and cheering at nothing? What is the point in that? Just get on with the programme and us viewers will make our minds up thanks.

I could go on all day about the ridiculous rounds and activities that go on the show but let's just point to one including Micky Flanagan and Frank Skinner dressing up in dresses and wigs and samba dancing and another involving everyone "gerning". An activity where everyone pulls as silly a face as they can to resemble Popeye. Not to mention that all the general knowledge questions fired at contestants shows how many thick celebrities we've got.

The BBC really have got to look at themselves for this shambolic show and have to have a bit more style about them. Because this is over the top, cringe-worthingly desperate and patronizing. Not to mention lacking in comedy and has the worst TV presenter I've ever seen in the repulsive Gabby Logan.

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