Recycling of old robot battles is the real pits

This week our Goggleboxers the Coleman family – Jimmy, partner Julie and their daughter Phoebe – tuned in to the revamped . But did the show leave them oiled up for more or creaking on their hinges? JIMMY: Here we go again. Another show resurrected from the TV graveyard. I don’t think the BBC is right for it. A smaller audience channel is where it would fit better. PHOEBE: I don’t get it. Why aren’t they explaining what’s happening? It’s like a continuation of the first series, assuming people know the rules. It’s not allowing new people the chance to come in. JULIE: It could be considered a family show, yet it’s so obviously aimed at people in that gamer world. If you aren’t a member of the elite club who knows the password, you can’t get in. JIMMY: I’m finding this a bit strange and geeky. Having fathers and sons messing around with screwdrivers to build ridiculouslooking contraptions to destroy other ridiculous contraptions. Sigh. Come on. It’s missing Craig Charles. He was much better at the interviews than Angela Scanlon. PHOEBE: Er, why are robots coming out from the corners attacking the contenders? Do they belong to the programme-makers? What’s going on? I’m completely lost. JULIE: Everybody seems to be facing each other at least twice. I suppose you’re getting value for money if you’re into your battles. PHOEBE: All this audience screaming, lasers, fire and claps are throwing me off. I can’t focus. It’s really distracting, especially as it’s the first episode I’ve seen. JULIE: There’s league tables but I can’t see how they’re worked out. Sometimes there’s two robots and one robot... Dara O Briain is talking too fast, I can’t take it in. JIMMY: That robot called Thor has destroyed everything in its path. Now it’s been tipped into a pit and didn’t win. It’s beaten everything else, so what’s going on? PHOEBE: They should have changed up the obstacle course instead of putting them in the same thing again and again. Once you’ve seen one battle you’ve seen them all. JULIE: I like when they take them back to the pits to see if they can fix the robots, but all this talk of bearings and the like is making me tune out. Even if we watch again next week, it won’t be much clearer. JIMMY: An hour is far too long. I’ve run out of battery power now. Switch over, girls.