MAKE ME PRIME MINISTER

Channel 4, 9.15pm

IT really would be a sign of the times if our next Prime Minister was chosen via a TV talent show format. Although at least then there might be a public vote?

Fortunately, politics has not quite plumbed to the murky depths of reality show elections, but Channel 4 offers this tongue-in-cheek contest to find an alternative PM.

Jumping on to the notion that we all think we could do better, this series takes us Apprentice-style through a selection process with 12 candidates.

They are ordinary-yet-opinionated Brits with views right across the political spectrum who will be put through their paces in a series of prime ministerial challenges.

And no, this doesn’t just mean going to parties.

In charge of this political minefield are two heavyweights in the field, Alastair Campbell and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

Alastair wants “energy and ideas”, while Sayeeda, rather optimistically, says: “Hopefully what this competition will do is find a new generation of political leaders.”

She’s not met them at this point. They include student Alice, proud Brexiteer and Thatcher-lover, internet sensation Jackie Weaver, and hairdresser Caroline who boasts: “I’ve been arrested three times and dragged through a hedge backwards.”

The first challenge is to come up with a new policy to reform education. Simple.

They split into groups and have to appoint a PM.

One of them tries to win favour with school kids by dressing up as a robot, while someone else dances around a maypole for the press. It’s all madness.

And at the end, the winner won’t even get any cash from Lord Alan Sugar…