By all accounts, Gogglebox shouldn’t have worked – what’s the appeal in watching other people watch TV?
As it turned out, Channel 4’s reality series became a firm Friday night favourite with its hilarious and heart-warming contributors.
But with the premise of the main series starting to become slightly too familiar, this new change-up is exactly what the show needed: Gogglesprogs sees the array of usual households swapped for young kids – who aren’t afraid to say exactly what they’re thinking.
The concept proved a success at Christmas with a one-off special, and now it’s back with a full six-episode series.
The first episode is hilarious – whether the children are confusing Asperger’s with asparagus, or being concerned about Donald Trump supposedly having a mantra “drilled into his head” (unaware of what exactly a mantra is).
The viewing is nicely varied, with a mix of TV from recent months, to current affairs and familiar films.
Gogglebox: The families
That means you get everything from comments that Trump has “got a black heart”, to the fact that Ninja Warrior is “for warriors, and ninjas”.
This week’s film viewing is vampire-romance saga Twilight (“He's looking at her like she's a leg of lamb,” notes one of the kids), and Mamma Mia – in which someone asks whether Meryl Streep is Britney Spears.
It’s really, really hard not to love it – so don’t even bother resisting.
Channel 4, 8pm
