10 O’ Clock Live

Series three, episode one
A strange one, this. Without ever quite feeling the sum of its talented parts, this satirical current affairs show has made it to a third series. Last time around, certain problems still bedevilled ‘10 O’ Clock Live’. The tone remained unsure and Lauren Laverne still felt a tad underemployed. And yet it continued to be watchable – David Mitchell proved to be a reasonably penetrating interviewer and Charlie Brooker’s world-weary plaints are always good value. Plus, any show that has James Delingpole up in arms is all right by us.

This time around, it’s probably make or break. ‘10 O’Clock Live’ could establish itself as an irreverent but still sentient alternative to ‘Newsnight’ (we’d suggest at least one lengthier and slightly more serious news piece per show), or it could drift off towards irrelevance and self-indulgence. For what it’s worth, we’d like it to work and there’s no reason why it can’t.