James R | On 15, Jan 2022

What’s available on-demand on Freeview? Keep up-to-date with our weekly catch-up TV column, including reviews of shows on ITV Hub, new releases on All 4 and a guide to My5.

 

Ant and Dec’a Limitless Win (ITV Hub)

A quiz in which people climb up a money ladder? ITV’s new Saturday night game show is, on the surface, very familiar. The difference? As the title suggests, the amount that could be won is limitless, with the ladder stretching up into infinity. The way they climb it is by answering questions with numerical answers – get the number right or less and they move up by that many spaces. Get it wrong, it’s game over. And for every digit they’re away from the correct answer, they lose a life. The rules get more complicated thanks to some lifelines that don’t really add any tension or excitement – the fact that the hosts have to explain each one as they come up before the contestants deliberate can get a bit tedious. But the real difference about the show is that the hosts are Ant and Dec. They’re as watchable and charismatic as ever, thanks to their genuinely excited screen presence and the real warmth of their double-act, while their knack for chatting with contestants as actual humans makes them a presenting duo to be reckoned with. No wonder that their their names are in the title too.

The Masked Singer (ITV Hub)

ITV’s in full gameshow mode at the start of the year, with the return of its now flagship singing contest. A perfect piece of does-what-it-says-on-the-tin programming, the show remains hugely enjoyable, thanks to the sheer ridiculousness of its premise: a bunch of celebrities dress up in absurd costumes and people try to guess who they are, while the best are voted through each week. The costumes are as wacky as ever, from a firework to a robot bunny, and the judging panel is clearly having fun not attempting to assess singing quality but just joke about the least likely person it is under the mask. The addition of Mo Gilligan this year adds some welcome energy to the silliness, but it also helps that the more established the show becomes in the UK, the more actually famous their contestants get.

I Literally Just Told You (All 4)

Over on Channel 4, Jimmy Carr returns to gameshow hosting with this new quiz programme, which has a unique format – all the questions are about stuff that’s just happened in the show. That could be the age or hometown of another contestant or just some random trivia casually mentioned in an aside. Either way, while Jimmy’s sarcastic teasing is out in full force, it’s a novel enough concept that you enjoy trying to remember all the information thrown at you at the same time as the contestants – proof that a fresh idea is all it takes for a gameshow to be a winner.

Add to Watchlist