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It’s too long. Yes, with the 90-minute format on BBC2, they were always falling off air, and it needed a bit of extra time, but as the new Channel 4 show gets longer and longer, it’s in danger of losing its way. This latest edition was two hours and 40 minutes in length.
The BBC2 show followed a precise format of having two main guests – which only expanded if each ‘guest’ was a double act or The Saturdays referring to Tim Lovejoy as their ‘dad’, etc., there was an intro with all the presenters, then for the rest of the show, with approximate timings:
- 10.05 First cooking segment with Simon plus Time and/or the third presenter,
- 10.15 Interview with guest No.1
- 10.30 Second cooking segment with Simon plus Time and/or the third presenter,
- 10.40 Interview with guest No.2
- 10.50 Cooking segment with guest No.1
- 11.00 Drinks segment, usually with Wayne Collins
- 11.05-11.10 Gadget Roulette
- 11.15-11.20 Cooking segment with guest No.2
- 11.11.25 Final chat with all the guests together as they eat the food
When it comes to Sunday Brunch, there doesn’t seem to be a set format. They spend far too long having a chat with all the guests at the start of the show, which is something that previously only happened around the end. Then, all the other segments appear to get slotted in when they realise they’ve spent too long doing one thing and it’s time to move on.
Looking at last Sunday’s show, there were FOUR guests, and if you’ll excuse the cooking pun, it felt like they were over-egging the pudding. First up was Jason Manford, currently starring in a stage production of Sweeney Todd. I’ve only ever seen his brand of comedy on TV, which isn’t the best platform on which to assess a comedian, but have always found his style way too safe to be funny. However, on here, his occasional asides were a lot more amusing, as was the fact he was clearly nursing a raging hangover, to the point where, an hour in, I thought he’d sloped off to sleep it off, but no, he turned up briefly towards the end. All that said, he was also on Lunch with Gino & Mel the next day and looked similarly dishevelled there, too.
Making a supposedly musical contribution to the show was professional irritant and part-time American impersonator, Joss Stone, whose warblings I have yet to be convinced of their aural merit, apparent celebrity gossip king or queen, Perez Hilton, who loved the sound of his own voice, and elderly Apprentice bloke Nick Hewer, who looked so bored at the top of the show that he was checking his watch. Sorry, Nick, there’s another two-and-a-half hours to go.
Somehow we got from one end of the show to another, but as it’s so long you start losing track of what’s been on and what’s still to come. In addition, what is normally a fun piece of escapist mid-morning entertainment on a weekend when there’s absolutely nothing else on, became a a laborious near-3hrs to work through, leaving you wondering if they’d already done a cooking segment with any of the guests, as they appeared to chop up some food which, even if they cocked it up, didn’t matter as they had already made one earlier.
To add insult to injury, we were ‘treated’ to a performance from Ms Stone at the very end. Some better music does occasionally come from the playlist feature which has been added to this show. However, that has fallen down at times when they ask a guest about the song they’ve chosen to go on the playlist… which they haven’t. It’s all pre-determined by the producers, but, a few weeks ago, Wayne Hemingway went up in my estimation when he refused to play their game and said he didn’t pick one, causing embarrassing silences for Tim and Simon.
And the gadget section for this show? Erm… I don’t think they had one. Not that I can recall. Maybe they did and I’d fallen into a temporary coma by that point.
Either way, if I wanted to be reminded of any point of the episode, I could’ve tuned in on their “did they really need it” channel ‘4Seven’ at 3pm the same day, as well as 1.05am the following morning.
Overall, Channel 4’s Dominic Lord pulled a blinder by commissioning this when the BBC dumped the show, especially for broadcasting the first programme on the Sunday following the final edition on BBC2, but it still needs work to keep it on track.
See my Carry On Something For The Weekend mash-up below:
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.