So, what did people think? I found the channel-hopping aspect of the show a bit annoying, still, what other format could allow you to say "Claudia Christian and... that bloke who used to be in London's Burning, together at last!"?
Yeah, there was just something that didn't work about it. I was pleasantly surprised by seeing CC but that was about it. No laughs in half an hour. I get more than that from Harry Hill's Shark-Infested Custard (a guilty pleasure, indulge me). The fast cutting is something Radio4 does better and with funnier results in The Sunday Format (is it the same people?).
I managed a couple of laughs - I liked the bit where a reporter was presenting a piece with a screen behind him that kept on flagging up pointless words like "some" and "mixture" - but overall I'm not hugely impressed. I'll give it a go next week, but imagine that this will quickly bore me.
Apparently it is the same people (BBC Press Office stuff sez). Looks like they've had the same problem Dead Ringers had with their first series on TV, as the change in format has meant that instead of talking to an audience who understood all the in-jokes and references they have had to broaden it out a bit too far. I think what made me more resistant to finding it funny was having the "shaft of frozen urine" gag lifted wholesale from The Day Today. Perhaps it was a homage.
Watched this this evening and rather than Broken News it strikes me as old news. The Day Today did much of this over a decade. It isn't distinctive enough. NEXT.
