Romesh Ranganathan's Parents' Evening (ITV1) 

Rating:

Romesh Ranganathan is the new king of Saturday nights. Even Bruce Forsyth never hosted three weekend shows on separate channels, one after another.

At 8.35pm, Romesh was presenting a special edition of The Weakest Link on BBC1, with celebs who had played before and been voted off after one round.

Tim Vine, Linda Robson and Danny John-Jules were among those given a chance to redeem themselves, and Romesh was far gentler with them than his predecessor, Anne Robinson, would have been. Only a fool went back for second helpings of her withering scorn.

A couple of hours later, on Sky Max, he was in Korea, investigating the meaning of happiness on Can’t Knock The Hustle.

In between these was Parents’ Evening. Looking every inch the game show host with a perma-smile and swept-back coiffure, he introduced three celebrities with their mum or dad — a throwback to The Generation Game.

EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier brought his father, reality star Jeff. Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor was accompanied by her mum, former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis.

If comedian Alex Brooker’s mum, Elaine, had also been a celeb, the show could have been renamed Nepo Baby Night.

Romesh’s best qualification for Parents’ Evening is his relationship with his mother, Shanthi, who clearly adores her boy while scolding and mocking him something rotten. Their fractious banter first proved a hit on his BBC2 topical chat show, The Ranganation, and it is now developing into a double act.

‘She’s said it to me every week of my life — you’re fat, you’re ugly, why don’t your eyes look in the same direction?’ he complained.

‘Never, never,’ retorted Shanthi. ‘That’s body shaming. I gave birth to you, you look . . . good.’ Her timing on the last word, and the note of disappointment in her voice, revealed where Romesh learned the rudiments of stand-up comedy.

But their unique interplay is ruined by a flawed game show format that simply hasn’t been thought out properly. As each set of questions is revealed, the parents have to predict how well their offspring will do. One round involved guessing the TV show from its prizes — a chequebook and pen for Blankety Blank, a glitterball for Strictly, and so on. Another tested their knowledge of celebrity scandals.

Only the contestant whose parent was most confident got to play the game. The other two sat and watched. Since Janet was highly competitive, while Jeff was protective and Elaine was cautious, it was Sophie Ellis-Bextor who stepped up to answer the questions, time and again.

Over the course of an hour, this became repetitive and boring. The humour was relentlessly crude, with endless toilet jokes. And Romesh lacks Brucie’s gift for understanding family dynamics and making fun of them.

Brucie would have insisted this format needed fixing before he went anywhere near it. Parents’ Evening is no ‘good game, good game’.