Review

  • Great news - Harry Hill's has finally begun another 13-episode series! He kindly watches all the soaps, 'reality' TV and dramas so we don't have to watch them ourselves to find out how bad they are. Hopefully his prime-time slot will win him some more fans, so we can see him on the box more often. I miss the Harry Hill Show a lot, but this comes very close and is a much better use of his talents than "You've Been Framed." This show is a beacon among all the Saturday 'entertainment' that has clearly run of ideas in recent years. It is also one of the few real comedies that ITV produce, although they have a few coming up that make me cringe just from the trailers. How much you enjoy TV burp will depend almost entirely on how much you like Harry's sense of humour as it can be an acquired taste, but if you are a fan you should find this show priceless.

    The quality of the show is somewhat dependant on what has been on television in the UK in the week running up to the show, but his delivery and the fact he is very imaginative in the way he uses the clips can usually overcome any shortcomings in the material. He is also good at spotting things happening in the background or noticing parallels between shows. An example of this is where he showed two car crashes - one from US drama CSI with high production values where a car smashes into a restaurant at high speed, people, tables and glass flying everywhere - and the other from soap Emmerdale where a car ploughs into a haystack at about 5 miles an hour. However there are too many examples to give a real flavour here and besides the jokes just aren't the same without his trademark deadpan delivery.

    A good deal more original than other clip shows which usually focus on television advertisements or 'bizarre' foreign television programmes. This feels fresher because it is so topical in comparison. Besides which all the advertisement shows end up using the same old clips eventually, whereas TV Burp gets new ones every week.