I Can See Your Voice
BBC1, Saturdays, 7.25pm
Among the many amusing elements of new Saturday night game-show/talent-show hybrid I Can See Your Voice (apart from its preposterous name and splendidly ludicrous premise), I particularly enjoy the bit where the singers, some of whom can actually sing, have to stand on their podiums perfectly still, as if frozen in time. The concept of the series is that a team of celeb “investigators” help two members of the public try to work out which of six acts have good voices just by looking at them, watching them lip-sync and them answering some questions. It’s a bit like a singing-based version of current BBC1 hit This Is My House, but much more kitsch.
On top of the hilarious frozen-stance situation, there’s also the excruciating moment when the acts, who can’t sing a note, still have to perform a song pretty much in full, for no good reason whatsoever, even though it’s quite clear within seconds of them starting that they are vocally useless. It doesn’t help that celeb panellists Jimmy Carr, Amanda Holden and Alison Hammond, and host Paddy Mcguinness insist on dancing awkwardly in the background, no matter how appalling the performances are. On the plus side, Carr keeps the whole thing ticking along nicely by taking the pee out of everyone involved, including himself, while Hammond, currently doing a great job co-hosting This Morning on Fridays with Dermot O’leary, is as enthusiastic and authentic as ever, while calling everyone “Babes”. The tone of the show relies on no one taking it very seriously, and while it’s not quite as pleasingly nuts as, say, ITV’S The Masked Singer, it’s not far off.