Poor choices from all concerned on last night's episode, Hugh Dennis chooses large cheques? That joke wasn't funny 25 years ago when I was at school, I would never have guessed he was a comedian if I didn't already know.

Cilla's choices were just weird - very little audience reaction to any of them, especially the knickers.

Mel's choice of overpronounciation was amusing but mainly due to the clip - certainly not due to Mel's embarrassing impression.

Very poor episode IMO, Frank looked like he knew it was tanking and appeared suitably embarrassed.

This series hinges on the guests and last night's choice was poor, much better when you have a loose cannon like Paloma Faith

I wonder if it is the same example she is referring to still after all these years, or even if it ever happened at all. Similarities:
Trying to get an upgrade at an airport checkin.
Differences:
Upgrade is for friend
Person is actually famous

I'm guessing she has updated it based on the popularity of reality programs and is now a work of fiction (and may have always been a work of fiction, or even something that happened to her rather than her witnessing it happen).

Loved Mel. Liked Hugh. Felt the whole thing was a bit on edge with Cilla though.

It all felt last night, as if they had all just been given their choices before the show started....more so with Hugh's.

Not a good one.

I think the show suffers from being on at 8:30. It should be a 10pm show.
So you get childish or family humour. Now wrong with that for the people who like that or don't like more adult humour but to me this show used to be more on the risque side.

I cant say I have seen all the episodes but most of what I have seen comes across as banal. I just dont get some of the choices, it seems like guests put little thought into what they actively dislike and it just comes across as random and pointless.
The best episode I saw was last time with Alice Cooper-he is a top guest for any show imo.

Always thought AC could host his own chat show, even if it was a one off special.

missed that brilliant..

who did the original room 101 ????

His choice for the category "People" was way off topic - I didn't quite understand how he chose people who bring cards round to be signed at work but he really talked about "the cards" rather than the person.
It just felt contrived.

I love someone to go there and put Cilla in R101.

Now that would be a great episode.

He is such a well spoken and well mannered bloke-and does such a great cameo in the first Waynes World film.

Nick Hancock.

How many times will Cilla appear? She was on the series with Paul Merton and now this one as well.

I noticed that too, she even told the same story about the upgrade at an airport!

Oh please..just watching her...am so glad we managed to export her....

I am so glad I love olive oil and ponder , as did Dennis , what her connection was to Cod liver oil from olive oil. She is a cringe-making human being...so pleased she is wdely rumbled.

The old Room 101 was much better. No silly competition element, and more items too due to less arguing.

Wrong.

Following from...


Wrong.

Not sure which one you mean but if it was the one with Paul Merton then I'd agree with you.

I really liked Room 101 but it's turned into the Frank Skinner Show and guests are there just to provide him with his weak and unfunny puns. It was better with one guest who had time to actually speak without the host interrupting with his 'comedic' lines and then taking over completely so that the guest is nothing more than a prop.

With Hancock, yeah probably.

But with Merton? Hell no. I hated how bored and uncaring Merton seemed on the show. To be fair, I don't really like the guy in general, so I was bound to be biased.

I like Frank Skinner, and I disagree that the show is an excuse for him to fire off his own jokes ala Simon Amstell or late Mark Lamarr era Buzzcocks.

I feel that he runs the show very smoothly. Not talking over guests and allowing each of them to get their share of jokes/anecdotes in.

When Paul first started Room 101 I didnt like it, he seemed very bored with little style, and it seemed he put everything into Room 101.
Now I want the old format back, it was good just restricting it to one guest and he got better as he went on presenting it IMO.

I gave up watching old 101, but I watch Frankie's version. I like him, and I think having 3 guests allows for some synergy between them. The element of mild competition helps too.

Like all guest-based formats, the quality will vary from week to week depending on the guests. Arguably for the recent two episodes we've had a duff guest in each.

Nick Hancock

I found this week's episode pretty boring. Mainly because Mel Giedroyc has to be the least funny person on television, alongside Sue Perkins.

You could see it during the episode, where she'd say something she thought would raise a laugh and the audience would just stay silent and she sheepishly tried to move on. And she kept chipping in on Cilla and Hugh's selections but without any discernible humour at all.

Hugh Dennis is quite a funny bloke when he's doing shows like Mock The Week, but in reality he's actually quite a boring, run of the mill kind of guy, so his selections were quite boring and cliched without a huge amount of humour to be garnered from them.

Cilla, well, she's just Cilla really, isn't she? There's not much more that can be said. Her belligerence was quite amusing, but the show really needed a couple of proper comedians to make it watchable.

If you compare this week's show to those when we've had the likes of Jason Manford, Greg Davies, Ross Noble, Micky Flanagan and David O'Doherty on, you realise that the format really does rely on having quite a larger than life comedian or two to help coax some humour out of the other participants.

Even Terry Wogan, on the week with Phil Tufnell and Victoria Coren made the show so much more watchable, with just a few dry quips.

But if there's one thing we've learnt from this week's episode it's that Mel Giedroyc should never be allowed on television EVER again, and hopefully she'll do us all a favour and take Sue Perkins into the abyss of non-entity-ness with her.

Next week with Clive Anderson and Jack Whitehall could be amusing.