The Marriage Ref

If you haven't had the pleasure of staying in on a Saturday night and looking at what ITV have to offer, you've missed out on The Marriage Ref. This programme is what appears to be filling the gap while Ant & Dec take a bit of a break, it involves couples having their jovial arguments judged by a panel of celebrities and is hosted by Dermot O'Leary. On first glance it's completely harmless fun and actually a pretty good watch when you throw the likes of Jimmy Carr in as a panelist. It takes a prime slot of 9pm.

Being restrained to the delights of Freeview since I moved house I've been subject to a lot of very poor TV. There have been times when all that's left is watching a bidding channel for the novelty of seeing a presenter somehow talk about the same dog bowl for 30 minutes. So seeing The Marriage Ref on our guide last night repeated on ITV2 from Saturday was quite a relief. I started to watch and geared myself up to see Dermot throw a few funny puns around ponder on why "Smiffy" (James Cordon) was sounding so well spoken.

Whether it was boredom, X-Factor withdrawal symptoms or just me being my usual over analytical self, I decided to look beyond the harmless fun at what this show is actually offering. I very quickly came to the conclusion that it's the worst programme to ever be broadcast, which if you're lucky enough to have to look at a TV guide every day for work you'd realise is quite a statement. As I was sat there last night watching this programme I wondered how on earth it had been commissioned and furthermore how they'd managed to convince Dermot to present it with a number of decent panelists. This in fact turns out to be the shows saving grace, had Bradley Walsh or Anton du Beke been thrust into Saturday night prime time presenting and not Dermot O'Leary this could of been absolute car crash television. Had the panel consisted of Anthony Costa or Christopher Biggins and not James Cordon or Jonathan Ross then I reckon OFCOM would have had a riot on their hands. Somehow, despite the worst format and show guests I've ever seen, this works.

I'd liken the couples to failed Big Brother applicants, they all try to pass themselves off as a bit wacky and there's an air of desperation about them that makes for pretty bad TV. They've obviously taken what's probably a small, funny argument between them and made it out to be something massive for the purpose of appearing on a TV show. When your husband of 50 years is obsessed with pickle, you can't stop your girlfriend purchasing reduced items from Tesco or your partner is obssesed with train spotting, do you really need Sarah Millican and Lorraine Kelly to settle things? Maybe this is just a vetting process for Jeremy Kyle? Do well on here, make a bit of a show and you might get an upgrade and we'll sort out your real problems.

If you can look beyond the tacky, cringeworthy early 90s-ish theme tune and graphics, the desperate to be famous couples and dreadful format, sit back and get ready for some of the best family entertainment ITV have to offer. While I'm not looking to be taught any life lessons of an evening, this idea was clearly bottom of a pile and was put together quicker than an Ikea foot stool. Luckily the names they've drafted in have made it half watchable.