Catch up TV review: The Steph Show, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, Coronavirus: How Clean Is Your House?
David Farnor | On 12, Apr 2020
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.
(For BBC TV reviews and round-ups, see our weekly Best of BBC iPlayer column. Or for reviews of the shows on All 4’s Walter Presents, click here.)
The Steph Show (All 4)
A live daytime show isn’t what you’d expect to find on Channel 4, but in these strange times, that’s precisely what the broadcaster has delivered. The result is The Steph Show, a weekday lunchtime show that beams across the country right from her own Yorkshire living room. The result, to its credit, is a surprisingly deft effort, given that McGovern is flying solo to a large degree – instead of a studio in Leeds, she’s at her house, where there are no signs of cue cards and no end of technical difficulties to thwart each broadcast. For anyone who works in the media right now, where living room broadcasts are becoming the norm and magazines are produced remotely, it’s a fun chance to see whether the programme can be pulled off to begin with.
10 episodes in and Steph has found her groove, with the former BBC Breakfast presenter resiliently upbeat enough to ensure that hiccups can’t stop her from continuing to broadcast – and, while an interview with Prue Leith mostly highlights the perks of being wealthy enough to live in a house with a garden, a segment involving Johnny Vegas getting his head shaved is the kind of thing you’d expect from a magazine programme like TFI Fridays. That it isn’t much more innovative than that is perhaps a slight disappointment, but the fact that it feels reassuringly familiar, and so determinedly positive, is a good thing in these unusual days.
Available until: 10th May 2020 (Episode 10)
Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back (All 4)
Joe Lycett returns for another run of the world’s unlikeliest consumer advice show, and the formula remains as wonderfully entertaining and oddly empowering as ever. Lycett is in his element here, sifting through paperwork, writing stern letters (or tweets) and generally being a stubborn, pedantic busybody. He made news headlines earlier this year by changing his name to Hugo Boss – just to make a point that the company’s protection of its trademarked name is needlessly aggressive. He’s right, and that combination of righteous indignation, underdog camaraderie and cheeky pranks makes for hugely satisfying telly. The addition of Katherine Ryan (his celebrity guest in Episode 1) to help highlight the dark side of both fashion and influencer marketing is the icing on the cake. Who knew that Lycett would find his ideal niche in a show that’s part Anne Robinson’s Watchdog and part Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d? Actually, he probably predicted that himself years ago.
Available until: 10th May 2020 (Episode 1)
Coronavirus: How Clean Is Your House? (All 4)
Part of Channel 4’s range of lockdown programming, this documentary joins a swathe of others exploring questions and providing important factual information about the coronavirus. This one in particular fulfils that dual function that makes it essential viewing: it genuinely informs with advice from experts while also making your anxiety levels worse. Getting two families to clean their homes before assessing which parts of the house are easily overlooked and could be contaminated with the coronavirus – and running through what cleaning products will do the disinfectant trick – it’s as calming and reassuring as it is unsettling and worrying. At least it’s better than watching Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion again.
