Meet The Parents @9.30pm- E4- 2 out of 10

Bloody hell, where to start with this huge pile of steaming sub-par excuse for television entertaintment? Let's start with the premise I suppose.

The idea of the show is that a girl takes her boyfriend to go meet her parents for the first time, a terrifying experience anyway, but, hey, let's make it even worse for these poor saps. Let's replace the girlfriend's family with actors and put the lad in horrendously, cringey situations. If he can survive five hours in the family home, he wins a holiday to an unspecified destination, Butlins before it closes perhaps.

Standby for an incredibly long list of criticisms.

Firstly, if I had been going out with a girl for eight months and I had not met her family, that's not the best pretext

Secondly, if I had been going out with a girl for eight months, a fair amount of time, and it looked as if it was a long lasting relationship, I'd be pretty hacked off if she thought it would be a jolly jape to fuck around with the first meeting with the potential in-laws. I'd probably be within my rights to tell her to bugger off after the show has finished and go on that Butlins holiday on my own and get an STD while I'm there.

Thirdly, if you are going to create these awkward cringey situations, at least make them appear believable to anyone with more than three brain cells. The gardener getting off with the mum? The hippy sister? The uptight, headmaster of a father? These are characters and situations from a sub-MTV (whisper it, sub-4 Music?) sitcom, and even in that they wouldn't be at all believable.

Fourthly, giving a young woman, who may well be in love with their boyfriend, the incentive for a holiday at the expense of the humiliation of their other half smacks a bit of exploitation. Perhaps welcomed exploitation but it appears to be taking advantage of a young woman by bribing her without thinking of the potential damage it can do to her relationship

Right, what else can I pick holes in about this show? The acting is at about the level of Hollyoaks, the voiceover man builds everything up beyond belief. Even the bloody font of the little countdown clock gets on my nerves.

Overall, whilst not having the best ethical grounding, this show could have worked if done properly. Instead, it's been put together to be as over-the-top as possible and rather than the situations the boyfriends are in being cringey, the whole show is one great big toe-curler.

The Myth of the Anfield Atmosphere

If you say something loud enough, often enough and for long enough, a large number of people will begin to believe what you are saying is fact. Take note of the 'Birther' movement in the US post-Obama's election and most other conservative rhetoric.

However, this does not mean what you are saying is correct, which brings me neatly on to the subject of the world famous Anfield atmosphere generated by the fans of Liverpool FC and indeed the British media.

We've all heard it before; "another superb atmosphere on a European night here at Anfield" says the commentator. "The Kop are in full voice tonight" replies the analyst. And at times they are correct, most vividly in European ties like against Olympiakos, Juventus and Chelsea in 2005, Chelsea again in 2007 and Real Madrid in 2008. In ties like this, it is clear to see the atmosphere played a part in creating what were incredible European nights at Anfleld.

What's the running theme in all of these games? They were all against either big European teams or must-wins matches that were easy to be psyched up for from a fan's viewpoint. Fans of Reading (even probably Chelsea) would create a superb atmosphere for games like that for God's sake.

But when it comes to games like tonight's against Napoli, you could hear a pin drop for large swathes of the first half and it was only the introduction of Steven Gerrard at half time that galvanised the Kop. And when smaller Premiership teams go for 'their big day out' at Anfield, the atmosphere is no different to any other ground, i.e. largely determined on how well the home team is playing.

I'm not saying the Anfield atmosphere is below average. There are some times when I'm sure it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end but there are tonnes of times I've felt this at the Madejski Stadium, a ground not at all known for its amazing atmosphere.

Perhaps, in the past (way before my time) Anfield was a unique place to experience football but equally, this view seems somewhat out of date now where it is largely a benign atmosphere, heavily reliant on stimulus from the players and only truly outstanding in important games.