Groom with a phew! What a real dogtastic delight

Bow wow wow! Let’s hear it for Pooch Perfect, a compelling competitive dog-grooming show which began on BBC1 last night.

Hosted by the actress Sheridan Smith (‘I am a dog fanatic’) with a mutt called Stanley and already hailed as The Great British Bark off, the eight-part series features eight UK groomers shearing off against each other in the coming weeks to win a trophy.

Heats include The Breed Makeover and The Dogwalk Challenge — the latter a kind of Show Stopper Round except with poodles rather than strudels.

The whole thing was a delight from start to finish, from the first mucky pawprint to the last primped puppy.

I loved the doggies being shampooed in their doggy baths, then being given a doggy blow- dry before their doggy trims — and most of them not minding a bit.

And why should they? The pooches have an on-set vet who concerns himself with their physical and mental needs at all times — and they are regularly taken for walkies and comfort breaks — the kind of luxury Bake off contestants can only dream about!

There were glimpses into the arcane rules of the dog-trimming world, where eyes must be visible and right, topknots are acceptable and rears must be shaped.

Thomas, from County Tyrone, was penalised for clipping a shih tzu’s legs into bellbottom flares, what was he THINKING?

Judges Colin Taylor (‘I want to see a tailored suit’) and Verity ‘Poodle Expert’ Hardcastle did not approve.

The dogs were marvellous — but the really interesting creatures were the groomers themselves — what an impressive bunch of people. Quite a few of them were young women running their own businesses, several had overcome X Factor-style difficult back stories to become a whizz with the clippers and the curved scissors — a necessity for creating a teddy bear foot, we discovered. I loved Abbie, from Leicestershire, who wanted ‘to be a Dalmatian’ when she was a little girl and is now covered in gothic tattoos in homage to her favourite horror films, including the Bates Motel from Psycho and details from The Silence of The Labs, sorry I mean Lambs. ‘I like giving my dogs supercute cuts, which might surprise you,’ she said. It did, but not as much as this lovely, unexpected delight of a dogtastic show.