Let’s get this straight: I have seen neither of the programmes I’m about to ramble about. But I have seen the trailers, and I’m going to comment on whether or not I think they work in making one want to watch them…. No, that’s not true; I’m going to explain why both trailers fail to make me want to watch the programmes.

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl (ITV2)
Based on the blog-turned-book by Belle de Jour, the trailer – and indeed the press advertising – makes much of the fact that the star of this show is Billie ‘Rose Tyler’ Piper. In fact, all the promotional stuff seems very much geared towards making you want to see Billie Piper in underwear, bondage gear, or maybe less. I don’t know if she takes her clothes off for the camera, and frankly I’m so uninterested that it’s almost interesting on a psychological level.

Belle’s a prostitute, that much is clear from the title, but the trailer tells us little else. Given that several of my friends said the book wasn’t much cop, and I have little interest in seeing Billie Piper nude (well, using that phrase should help with the Google hits on my blog), the trailer fails to get me to watch. And this I can prove empirically, as the programme was on last night, and I didn’t watch. Q., as they say, E.D.

The Life And Times Of Vivienne Vyle (BBC2)
A new comedy series written by and starring Jennifer Saunders, she plays a talk-show host who seem to live up to her surname once the camera stops rolling. For my money, the name of the show is a bit weak – yes, it’s a semi-joke on Jeremy Kyle, but that’s about it. As for the premise, we’ve seen this set-up previously in The Larry Sanders Show, and as the trailer suggests that Saunders is using the same delivery and mannerisms as her Edina Monsoon character in Absolutely Fabulous, it doesn’t look like anything we haven’t seen before elsewhere.

Bit of a pity, really, as Saunders can be a versatile comedy actor (see her Comic Strip work) and writer (she invariably gave the best lines in Absolutely Fabulous to other characters), but this looks like a distinctly missable show.

Incidentally, the Vyle show is one of a number of shows being trailed on BBC2 under the heading of ‘Thursdays Are Funny’, a themed strand beginning next Thursday evening. Presumably this is a tacit admission by BBC2 that the current shows in these slots – Mock The Week and Saxondale – are not funny?