IAN HYLAND

on the weekend’s telly

Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer, BBC1 ★★★

MAYA Jama really caught my attention on BBC1 on Saturday night.

Towards the end of the finale of this light entertainment experiment, Maya announced: “That’s just about it for this series.”

This series, Maya? THIS? I hope your intonation wasn’t suggesting there will be another.

Save Our Summer may not have been the Eldorado of light entertainment, but it wasn’t far off. Its ratings performance alone deserves its own four-word summary, spoken by

Morgan Freeman: “Summer was not saved.”

If we’re looking for positives, SOS can at least be credited with giving

Maya the Saturday night exposure her obvious talents deserve.

And Peter Crouch now knows much more about the technical side of hosting, which will stand him in good stead for when he’s offered a better show.

SOS was conceived as a companion programme to Euro 2020. When that was postponed for a year, Peter’s glorified podcast should also have been put on ice. But the BBC ploughed ahead. And when football did come home halfway through the run, they couldn’t talk about it as SOS was pre-recorded before the weekend matches and Match Of The Day was airing live anyway.

Consequently, niche features such as Peter’s sports challenge against the “Fast Dad” from his kids’ school suddenly took centre stage and a host of quirky ideas were stretched further than Peter’s inside leg.

And whether Maya likes it or not, SOS will probably be remembered for her daring outfits rather than Peter’s daring stunts.