The TV channel Dave has carved out a nifty niche for itself when it comes to offbeat shows featuring stand-up comedians doing something that isn't stand-up. The motherlode of this genre is obviously Taskmaster which eventually transferred to Channel 4. But Dave has plenty more tricks up its digital sleeve, including Hypothetical, which is on tonight.
They recently launched Unforgivable, in which Mel Giedroyc and smutty sidekick Lou Sanders grill guests about unspeakable things they have done in the past. It's like a chat show but without the boring bits and they've wangled some pretty big guests, such as Graham Norton who revealed he had his appendix removed so that his mother didn't find out he had told a lie about being sick to avoid school.
Comedy Central also got in on the embarrassing anecdote act with Rhod Gilbert's Growing Pains, which went down a slightly similar path, this time asking guests to delve into their long-repressed adolescent experiences. Top notch guests here have included David Baddiel and Richard Ayoade. They also made Guessable, fronted by Sara Pascoe, who was aided by the brilliantly off-the-wall John Kearns.
But let's flip back to Dave, where Hypothetical is currently running for another series. This show has positively gold standard weapons grade hosts in James Acaster and Josh Widdicombe (recently exposed as a flower show/vegetable competition cheat) and also has the clout to pull in big names. And it does ask more of the guests, who have to think out of the box to come up with answers to imaginary questions. No dredging up painful child trauma to score easy points and laughs here.
The guests this week are Evelyn Mok – born in Sweden to a Hong Kongese father and a Chinese-Indian mother, apologetic Old Etonian Ivo Graham, Gameface creator Roisin Conaty who has recently also been on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Would I Love To You? so should be panel show match fit (though for all we know this oen might have been recorded befoe the others...) and the man, the engima, the Growing Pains star that is Crystal Maze/Travel Man host Richard Ayoade.
