If you’re all sitting comfortably, David will begin
HAS there even been a man who likes the sound of his own voice as much as David McWilliams? If there is, I’d like to meet him. Except I wouldn’t really.
This new four-part series opened with a show on the housing market and, more specifically, a monologue from our host that seemed to go on for longer than an instrumental solo on an Emerson, Lake & Palmer album.
I’d really love to be as sure about anything as David seems to be about everything.
Straight after that, he descended into the studio audience and asked a couple of
ordinary punters about their experiences of renting, trying to buy a home and all the rest of it.
Much of the remainder of the programme was taken up with contributions from people whose names and faces were only vaguely familiar.
Perhaps the most ill-judged parts of it all, though, were the hectoring interludes from stand-up comedian Andrew Maxwell.
That sort of undergraduate material only gets belly-laughs when the audience have spent the previous three hours lashing into the free gargle in hospitality.
Given that this lot were clearly stone-cold sober, their amusement level was pretty restrained.
I can’t imagine many of them will be rushing back, although I suppose there is no overestimating how keen some people are to appear on television or just get out of the house for the evening.
Even though the entire David McWilliams brand is built on doom and gloom, that isn’t to say that he will be proved wrong in predicting another property crash.
But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the principal objective of this show was to allow him to exercise his cherished vocal cords yet again.