Titter Ye Not - At All

You can't fault Fatiha El-Ghorri for her cutting, brutal, comic timing but you'd have to question whether someone whose schtick is acting like she'd verbally shank the next who crossed her has the right vibe to be the head judge on this annual trawl through the best comics on the British circuit.

This feeling is compounded when her fellow judges are a couple of comedians who are so anonymous that they probably wouldn't be picked out of a police line-up by their own family. El-Ghorri should be on everything - but maybe just not this. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say that to her face because I'm not brave enough but, at the heart of it, she's just not the right fit for this. Even if that was covered up by the other judges being an even worse fit.

Regular viewers of this series, which is now in its third decade, will know that it has a superb hit rate when it comes to comedians that didn't win. Among the long list of comedic failures who didn't go home with the trophy and who you never heard of again are Lee Mack, Chris Addison, Peter Kay, David O'Doherty, Shappi Khorsandi, Russell Howard, Tez Ilyas, Joe Lycett, Mark Silcox, Sindhu Vee.. the list goes on.

Maybe that's the joke?

The Bristol heat was perplexing because, if you'd never set foot inside a British comedy club before, you'd have to assume, after watching it, that the UK comedy scene was, if not actually dead, certainly on life-support having been beaten up and left next to a half-eaten kebab on the pavement outside a club - and it really isn't.

The turns were, mainly, forgettable. In their defence, most of them had something but didn't have a really tight 10 (it was probably 5 but it felt like 10). A few hours after watching, there are only two acts that I can remember - the winner (whose character act was painful, two dimensional and, if I'm being generous, a single joke) and a great stand-up who took us on a deadpan, drug-induced flight of fancy.

Predictably enough, the stand out act of the night, Omari Douglas, whose perfect delivery and tight, tight set, didn't get through. A bright future awaits him if history repeats itself which, hopefully, it will.

Episode one is available on BBC iPlayer.