It’s Saturday night. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has just ended but you’re not ready to give up on a night of easy viewing television. You turn over to the BBC and find I love My Country, only to be taken on an hour long excruciating roller coaster ride of sing-a-longs, poor jokes and even poorer ‘games’ involving Yorkshire Puddings.

I Love My Country seems to think it can ride on the success of London 2012 spirit, a British Wimbledon win and the birth of Prince George but no amount of patriotic goodwill can save this shambolic show. Gabby Logan was a predictable choice to front the show after her co-hosting of Splash! but the producers seemed to think that having her feature alongside a whole host of unknown ‘celebrities’ (I think one was probably from Holby City) would add to the Saturday night fun. Micky Flanagan, a surprising guest considering his stand up credentials, looked genuinely pained during a Jamelia rendition of yet another Beatles classic as he realised the atrocity he had committed by taking part.

The highlight of the first show had to be the ingenious ‘Guess the Weight of the Mayor of Wycombe’ game but the novelty soon wore off, likewise with the pass the parcel quiz which was played not in one, but three episodes in a row.

We’ve come to expect better of the beeb but it’s now rivalling ITV’s all time low that was Your Face Sounds Familiar.

The only thing I can say that I Love My Country achieved was prompting me to book a flight out of the UK as soon as was humanly possible.

Words: Caitlin Williams