I’ve tried watching 10 O’Clock Live over the past number of weeks. I’ve really tried. I thought that it would be an irreverent take on the news, with a slight bite to it.

I was wrong. It’s turned out to be a very reverent take on the Guardian, with a lot of bile in it.

The first week I watched it, I tried to see what I’d improve in it.

• First off, I’d drop Lauren Laverne. Or at least have less of her in the show. She’s just not particularly suited to the style I’d like the show to have, and while the others have at least made me laugh once or twice I’ve not had more than a wry grin when Laverne is trying her hardest.
• I’d change the timings considerably. More time for David Mitchell, for example, to do his interviews since that’s really the only time you’ll get a politician saying something they might not on other programmes. Less time for the round-table conference. Less time for Jimmy Carr to do anything other than his introductory stand up routine. One less of Charlie Brooker’s segments from the desk, because he’s clearly a bit of a broken record.
• I’d try and make the audience listen to what some of the people on it are saying. A few weeks ago, for example, Mitchell was going on about how the deficit wasn’t that much of a problem, it being just like a mortgage and everyone had one of those and was OK. The politicio he was interviewing then explained that the debt was like a mortgage and, yes, having a debt is OK. But the deficit is how much we’re adding to the debt every year, and surely that shouldn’t be too massive for too long? Cue moments of revelation that were promptly forgotten when Mr Brooker did his next routine about how cuts are the worst thing ever…

As I say, I’ve tried. Five episodes I’ve sat through. But I think from here on I’ll give up and maybe just catch the Mitchell bits on YouTube after the fact. It’d be a simple way to get the funny hit without all the surrounding shit.