The John Bishop Show review;
John Bishop has left Dan behind in the Tardis to join his guests n a studio for a new ITV series unsurprisingly called The John Bishop Show. And, unsurprisingly, it was good.
Bishop is one of the country’s top observational comedians performing sell out tours over the past 10 years in between saving beluga whales. In this new series he performs topical stand-up to a fully masked studio audience and chats to guests. It doesn’t come across as a plugging show in the way that Graham Norton’s guests are there at the behest of their respective publicity gurus to plug their latest film, series, play or book. There was a musical interlude, of sorts: Bishop did a pastiche of 2021’s biggest selling album, Adele’s ‘30’, calling it 55, being his age. Not sure if it was actually the comedian himself singing but it was very well produced and a funny commentary o age and health.
His two guests on this first episode were the often outrageous but always hilarious, comedian Sarah Millican and actor James Nesbitt. Of course the host got in a mention of Millican’s current nationwide tour ‘Bobby Dazzler’ and raised Nesbitt’s current gripping Netflix hit ‘StayClose’ which he binged over two sittings. However it was done in a way that didn’t sound like an infomercial. It was conversational. This show is more chat than plug, even if Bishop himself does most of the chatting. Inevitably, in the age in which we live, there were smart phone video clips with some funny anecdotes from the guests, particularly Sarah Millican’s retelling of her accident with a mandolin – the kitchen utensil not that owned by Captain Corelli.
The John Bishop Show is a welcome addition to the Saturday night ITV schedule. If you missed this episode it is available on ITV Hub
