The Stage

TV review: Don’t Stop Believing/Odd One In

Published Monday 26 July 2010 at 14:03 by Harry Venning

About 15 minutes into Five’s new talent show, Don’t Stop Believing, I started to believe that the programme was genuinely interested in discovering and showcasing new talent.

For one thing, there was a total and blessed absence of any of that contrived audition nonsense, so beloved of The X Factor, in which hopelessly deluded wannabes are paraded before the judges and publicly humiliated for their efforts.

Instead, all the musical performance groups on the live show were of a professional standard, and a high one at that. The influence of Glee was there for all to see, not least in the acts’ choice of cheesy names, which included Dice, Step Up and The Classix. There was also a welcome diversity of body shapes on display, to remind us that performance is not the preserve of the buff.

Then there were the judges, who actually seemed enthused by what they were witnessing. Flying in the face of television talent-trawl wisdom, the show had neglected to provide a pantomime villain among the pundits. Indeed, such was the nurturing environment in which the panel held court that a full three acts had performed before anything even remotely critical was uttered. ” I’m not sure it really worked for me,” ventured Hollywood choreographer and owner of possibly the coolest name in show business, Chucky Klapow.

But then came The Manchester Show Choir, all 60 of them. The producers chose to frame the group’s biography around a solitary member, who happens to be heroically battling lung cancer. They were followed by a group of Glaswegian teenagers in care, heroically battling disadvantage, and all making life-affirming statements. The focus suddenly lurched from talent spotting to heartstring tugging, and the programme became a lot worse, and unoriginal, for it.

Not that this sudden influx of cynical sentimentality did The Manchester Show Choir any favours. Sheer weight of numbers rendered their performance cumbersome and inflexible, with manoeuvres more akin to crowd control than choreography.

The judges - who also included Tamzin Outhwaite, Anastacia and Duncan James - told them so, but in the nicest possible way.

Crass emotional manipulation notwithstanding, Don’t Stop Believing is very entertaining and has collected together some astonishingly good acts. Host Emma Bunton, formerly part of a rather successful musical performance group herself, is all empathy and enthusiasm for the aspiring acts.

Odd One In is a new game show with a disarmingly simple premise: spot the authentic person in a line-up of frauds. A format arrived at by the disarmingly simple process of pinching the most popular segment from Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Edition one saw host Bradley Walsh invite two celebrity teams to identify the real nun, glider pilot, rollerskater, man married to pineapple and, in a cunning reverse, fake beard.

The celebrities, who included Peter Andre and Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, were allowed to interrogate the contestants before making their decision but that didn’t seem to help much.

And I have to say, the show works. Walsh is in his element, the banter is amusing and the categories suitably eclectic and imaginative. Plus, viewers can play it at home without exercising more than 25% of their brains, which is what you want on a Saturday evening.

• Don’t Stop Believing, Five, Sunday, July 18, 7pm

• Odd One In, ITV, Saturday, July 17, 7.15pm