The Bridge

Channel 4, Sundays, 9pm

Not to be confused with the classic Scandi noir of the same name, this new reality format has a classic simplicity to its premise: gather 12 normals in an isolated rural location (with a hot tub), and challenge them to get £100,000 located 850ft away on a tiny island in the middle of a huge lake… by building a bridge. And they have 20 days to do it. “That is actually quite far,” observes one of the team, wisely, as she ponders the distance. The gang of 12 is made up of classic reality TV types, from egotistical male stripper Zac to ruthless youngster Rowan, who announces, “I’m here to win”, as if he’s on The Apprentice. There’s also a quasi-celebrity among them: Billie, daughter of TV chat queen Trisha Goddard, who is impressively honest about her privileged life, but still wants the £100,000. The stand-out character, though, is 60-year-old Sly, a car fabricator, whatever that means, who is taking absolutely no shit from anyone. When Billie unsurprisingly admits she’s never built a bridge in her life, and we’re all nodding our heads in recognition of our similar lack of bridge-building experience, up pops Sly to reveal that he actually has built a bridge. “I’m a fabricator!” he declares, to blank faces all round. So, when it comes to the key moment of the 12 contestants having to pick their leader for this unique task, obviously they’re going to choose the only one of them who has the specific bridge-based skill required, right? No, they go with the stripper. Obviously. Which is why I’ll be tuning in next week…