Boyd’s TV Land
ITV2, Thursdays, 9pm
In case you have yet to clap eyes on Bromans, ITV2’S mash-up of game show, period comedy-drama and reality TV, let me describe it to you: a gaggle of real-life couples, most of whom seem to be rejects from TOWIE or Geordie Shore, arrive “in Ancient Rome”, where the lads proceed to get naked and stand there clutching their tackle while their girlfriends grapple with each other in a dusty arena, trying to get their hands on a toga for their blokes to wear. Of course, they’re not really in Ancient Rome – ITV2’S budget doesn’t stretch to the invention of a time machine. Instead, the whole thing seems to be a cunning way of getting extra use out of the set of Plebs in sunny Bulgaria, where the channel’s fine Ancient Rome-based comedy is also filmed. As for these plebs (sorry!), after that first nuditybased task, the competitors then engage in gratuitous bad dancing and showing off in a mock-up of a Roman nightclub, complete with what is surely historically inaccurate rave music, before the couples stumble into bed in a communal room and where it then gets a bit Love Island-y. Or so the producers hope. If you’re wondering what the show’s unique selling point is, it seems to be the liberal use of full-frontal nudity, which, last time I checked, even Love Island and Geordie Shore tend to pixelate. To be fair, the tone is also wryly self-aware, with actors populating the set and commenting on the “action” in fairly amusing style. I doubt it’ll win any awards, but Bromans is at least a suitably vulgar lead-in to the even more outrageous Celeb Juice that follows. Which, I guess, is what it was designed for.