Mock the Week

In a mix of Have I Got News For You and Who's Line is it Anyway this topical news quiz is entertaining but is far from being as clever as it thinks it is. In essence it is a quiz with questions relating to the news given to the panel made up of two teams but it also features rounds where individuals step forward to make jokes on a topic given them by host Dara O'Brian. The two aspects work as well as each other although personally my preference is for the panel format more than the "stand-up" format.

And maybe that is why I enjoy the show but am not a massive fan of it. You see, to me, it all does seem very much like everyone has prepared their lines and their routines and at times it does seem like they are delivering their stand up routines in response to questions that they aware of long before the show began. Of course I know that with all panel shows they are aware of the questions and subjects to some degree but here it is consistently more evident as the various panellists seem pretty separate in what they are doing.

The effect of this is to delivery some funny lines but for the show itself to feel a bit disjointed and fragmented. Of course it does depend on the panellists involved but recently they have been stand-up performers who are used to delivering alone rather than jamming off others.

Overall though, a topical news quiz that aims for a lower end of the market but is still enjoyable and entertaining. The stand-up nature of it produces plenty of good laughs in each episode but does have the downside of fragmenting the banter and making it feel like everyone queuing up to deliver their lines rather than genuinely sparking off one another.