TV review: Through the Keyhole; Ade in Adland

During a recent commentating slog on BBC 5 Live’s Test Match Special, former England captain Michael Vaughan bemoaned the loss of now-defunct gameshows, in particular Jim Bowen’s Bullseye. “If you failed the final challenge, they brought out what you could have won. It was always a speedboat. Brilliant. Bring it back,” he cheered, recalling the show’s catchphrase: “You can’t beat a bit of bully.”

Vaughan’s nostalgia for extinct shows is nothing new. Just last year, TV station Challenge took a punt on resurrecting Blockbusters, with Simon Mayo in the host’s chair. The results, but for the sniggering when contestants asked Mayo for “a ‘P’, please”, were disappointing. You see, it had lost its charm. Mayo just didn’t match up to the late, great Bob Holness.

ITV has decided to bring back Through The Keyhole, the juggernaut formerly hosted by David Frost that ran for a whopping 20 series between 1987 and 2008. Only now, Keith Lemon is in charge and taking it in a much more tongue-in-cheek direction. Is Leigh Francis’ comic creation up to it? Or is the job of replacing Frost, with that inimitable voice and catchphrase, a (door)step too far?

It’s all a question of whether or not you like Lemon, the uber-tanned Yorkshireman who was first seen offending celebrities in Channel 4’s Bo’ Selecta!

The revamped Through the Keyhole runs very much to the same format as its predecessor. A panel of celebrities, in this case Eamonn Holmes, Martine McCutcheon and Dave Berry, is given a video tour of a mystery person’s house and has to work out who it is.

But this time it isn’t the smooth-talking Loyd Grossman providing the clues. Instead, Lemon himself guides us around each house. He rolls around on the grass, pulls sleazy faces and uses almost every available opportunity to brush up on his innuendo. It’s all completely silly.

The first house – or should that be victim? – belongs to Olympic gymnast and Strictly Come Dancing winner Louis Smith. After shaking a can of diet coke from Smith’s fridge like a adolescent prankster – hilarious – Lemon proceeds to the bedroom, where, of course, his brand of lewd humour can shine brightest.

“Here we can see strong signs of metrosexuality,” he says, as the camera cuts to a studded rubber shoe that could quite easily double as a sex toy. “Oh, and heavy, leather trim,” Lemon continues, rubbing the headboard, “juxtaposed with a delicate, diamante lampshade…” He pauses, and to the delight of the studio audience, proceeds to try on several of Smith’s more risque outfits.

“What the fuck is this top?” he asks, as he stands in his pants trying on a frilly blue smock that I imagine Smith probably regrets leaving in the cupboard. But the homeowner just shrugs his shoulders and laughs.

Subsequent guests get the same treatment from Lemon. In one cringeworthy sequence at John Prescott’s house, for example, the host is quick to point out the former deputy prime minister’s burgeoning drinks cabinet and large dining table, where, apparently, he enjoys “mass debating”.

Later, at Duncan and Lee from boyband Blue’s house, yep, Lemon takes his trousers off again and drapes himself all over the bed. You don’t really know where to look.

It left me wondering what the mystery guests gain from being ridiculed in this way. Is the exposure really that valuable? And, perhaps more importantly, why were Grossman and Frost so quick to show their support? Is nothing sacred?

Continuing with the trip down memory lane, Ade in Adland is the latest show to delve into the sackful of adverts from days of yore, telling us plainly that “our pallets and waistlines have come a long way”. Just look at what we used to advertise – here are clips of “real men who always put their pints first”, women proud to buy Campari from Luton airport, and aliens who find mashed potato hilarious.

Host Adrian Edmondson, who increasingly resembles a gaunt Harry Hill, makes a welcome return to our screens after his insightful tour of the UK in the popular Ade in Britain from 2011. Here, sadly, the comedian is confined almost entirely to the studio, which leads the show down those meandering paths to cheap sketch links that are best described as filler.

Still, it’s fascinating to track the changes in our tastes. Particularly interesting is Charlie Naughton starring as a zookeeper in Guinness’ first-ever advert, as the Glaswegian comic gets outwitted by a German seal that has developed a brilliant balancing act. It’s a superb, shining example of the brewery’s prowess to come. Ah, the good old days.

Through the Keyhole, ITV, Saturday, August 31, 9.20pm
Ade in Adland, ITV, Tuesday, September 3, 9pm