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

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. **

Have to disagree. I thought it was so funny and I find something new to laugh at each time I watch it. There are some fantastic lines such as "Best Harmonies since Brother Beyond" and "Jet skiing at Niagara Falls? Isn't that dangerous? Yes Thanks Pete we know that now"..

Peter Kay shares the funny lines out and does not keep all the best laughs for himself much like Victoria Wood. He has a knack of seeing things us mortals take for granted like "We have the Green light" - and there it is flashing away. LOL So funny.

If you think the standard of TV these days is so good that it is not deserving of this then you need to get out more. I highly recommend this.

Very poor show peter! It just goes to show that you cant make this stuff up, and this is one instance where a reality show i.e The X-factor is more funny because of the sincerity and abject lack of talent of most of the contestants. Its just not possible to emulate that no matter how hard you try.

Felt like a total waste of an evening, boring to watch and I cant believe I got suckered into watching the second part.

I've liked Peter Kay for years, before many had even heard of him and it looks like he now believes his own hype.

Looks like this working class comedian just doesn't have the longevity of even some of his less talented peers. Even Johnny Vegas could manage better than this drivel.

If this continues he'll be taking a leaf out of Paddy's book and dining in style at a Greggs near you!

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.

Don't get me wrong I'm a huge Peter Kay fan some of his shows like Phoneix Nights, Max and Paddy have kept me laughing even on repeat showings but this show was just too close to the X Factor for comfort. So close that at times an average viewer may not have realised it was a spoof.

There was just a huge shortage of jokes, one or two big laughs and the odd titter do not make a comedy show.

Also you must remember that just because you have a rosta of celebrity guest stars it doesn't mean that guarantee's you a hit show, I was actually quite surprised to see an artist of Sir Paul McCartney in a show like this.

My advice Mr Kay, next time please try harder......