10 o’clock Live @10pm, Thursdays- Channel 4- 7 out of 10

You know what the UK television market needs? More current affairs comedy/satire programmes. I mean, there is probably only about five of them currently running at the moment across the main channels, each with their own gimmick and so on. Clearly, it's a formula that works, else there wouldn't be so many of them. But wait, what's this? A live variety? Featuring an all star line up of contemporary leftist comedic stars? And Lauren Laverne? Well, let's see.

Everyone knows that UK TV has been looking for a home grown equivalent of America's Daily Show and this is probably as close as we are going to get to it as the BBC would never be able to get away with a show like this due to impartiality rules and ITV is, well just a bit shit and it would inevitably be hosted by Adrian Chiles so would be worse than shit; something even Fiver wouldn't show.

Basically, the show's premise is like a combination of Question Time, Newsnight, Screenwipe/Newswipe and Andrew Marr's Sunday morning show but whilst at the same time trying to attract a younger demographic. Biiiiiiigggggg challenge.

Firstly, if it wants to be respected as a forum for real political debate, a balance has to be struck between being funny but also letting the experts do their thing, something David Mitchell and Jimmy Carr both struggled with at times. That said, the five guests all contributed and were allowed to articulate their points whilst Mitchell emerged as a very sharp interviewer.

Elsewhere, Charlie Brooker doing what he does, cynicism in nicely put together edited pieces but tends to struggle with live TV, perhaps because he is a far better writer as a comedian than a quick wit like Carr and Mitchell. Although his piece on Tunisia, similar in nature to his edited pieces familiar to viewers of Newswipe, was glorious rant on the Western media full of perfectly formed points and humour.

Carr, acting pretty much as the front man of the group delivered his one liners with customary aplomb but perhaps lacks the real interest in current affairs that Mitchell and Brooker, aside from making the odd layman's point in debates. Should not be allowed to interview people either due to his laughing at most left-field points which leads me on to.

Lauren Laverne doing not an awful lot it must be said which seems a bit of a waste of talent as she is a good broadcaster and occasionally comes out with some good lines. Perhaps could be given Carr's slot for interviews to both get some use out of her.

Mitchell showed a surprising turn as leader and director of a debate but also in his usual high quality rant mode for people who are familiar with his soapbox videos on the Internet. He is perhaps the most multi-talented person working on television today; comedic actor, writer, comedic performer, panellist and burgeoning interviewer, albeit one that is learning.

Certainly, there is some dire pieces such as the World News Now feature and the Holiday Hotspot piece which were very forced and rather lazy but these were offset elsewhere by some lively debate that was insightful, intelligent and reasoned. The show can be a bit slow at times but that's live TV for you I guess, it comes with the territory of strange cuts to cameras pointing at people's feet and stuttering from the hosts

There was a definite lack of impartiality but what's funny about the centre ground in politics? You can only make laughs from a perspective, there is not much funny about beige, neutrality and generally being in the middle, just ask the Swiss.

All in all, a promising start that can improve in time but the last show I said that about was The Event and look how that went

Most Annoying People 2010- BBC3- 4 out of 10

Dictionairy.com defines irony as “a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion. “

Or, if you prefer 150 minutes of a visual description, check out BBC3’s ‘Most Annoying People 2010’ in which the most annoying people of 2010 are counted down with inputs from, and here’s the irony, a range of talking heads who are MORE annoying than the people they are having a go at.

From Big Brother contestants, to no name comedians, to Jedward, to countless vapid, air-headed celebrity ‘journalists’ from magazines called Heat and Star and Now and Hello and Toilet Paper and Arse Gravy, it’s a sea of the untalented expressing their anger at the talented and the small things they do that annoy them. It’s even narrated by Richard Bacon, a man so devoid of personality and charm he can only just about get a show on ITV4 on a frigging weekday.

One celebrity journo says “Peaches Geldof has done nothing with her life.” This coming from a person whose job pretty much solely involves writing about how one idiot may be going out with another moron and then snap them falling out of a club together with their clothes torn and vomit down their fronts. Stones and glass houses my friend?

You have to wonder what kind of universe these people live in, where their biggest concerns in the whole world are Lady Gaga’s dress sense, Tiger Woods’ infidelity and Kristen Stewart being a depressive star. Still, keeps everyone’s mind off our impending doom I guess. Heat magazine, the opiate of the masses.

Thankfully, some of the talking heads are funny or insightful such as the hilariously insane Rich Fulcher, the underrated (and owner of the biggest nose in the world) David Schneider, the Irish named but not-Irish born Mickey Flanagan and the surprisingly intelligent Maggot and Eggsy from Goldie Lookin’ Chain.

It’s all a lovely recap of 2010 but in a soft news kind of way, like looking at the news through a Daily Star kaleidoscope (patent pending) where bankers and politicians that royally screwed us all over are slowly airbrushed out of our collective memories to be replaced with anger at people that don’t really matter.  Jedward and Lindsay Lohan are more annoying than Tony Hayward, what?!

Oh, and one of the other irritating things about ‘Most Annoying People’ is its length. Weighing in at a mammoth 150 minutes long and appearing on the BBC causes many problems, as do any programmes that last longer than 90 minutes on the BBC, lack of breaks for natural, bodily functions. Every 45 minutes or so, a three minute blank screen should be broadcast to allow one to go for a whizz or make a cup of tea or have an extreme quickie or whatever. Just a thought.