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No, thankfully I’m not talking about a recent experience I’ve had to endure, rather the new ITV1 chat come reality show called 24 hours with… The first episode of this intriguing new show aired on Monday night with Bobby Brown as the guest, and it made for some interesting viewing.

When I first heard the concept of this show ‘1 host, 1 guest, 1 room, 24 hours’ I was blown away by the simplicity but pure genius behind it. It’s one of those TV shows that you sit there and wonder why you didn’t think of first. Well, people sort of have done, with it being a cross between Big Brother, Parkinson, and Louis Theroux. The fact it’s 3 programmes rolled in to 1 is it’s good point, but also it’s downfall.

The programme started with host Jamie Campbell (no, I’ve never heard of him either) sitting in a round room/studio, with a double bed and fully equipped kitchen in. And then through a door walks Bobby Brown, one time pop star, junkie and Whitney husband. The door is locked, and that’s it, the scene is set for a 24 hour interview, or borefest depending on the guest.

The interview session begins at 12pm, and obviously ends at the same time next day, so you’d expect sleep to come in to the equation at some point. First though, Jamie explains the rules, there are none, except you can’t leave the room. The interviewer and interviewee can eat and drink as much as they like, which includes a whole array of alcoholic drinks lined up ready for consumption. Bobby started by downing a beer.

These are the highlights of the 24 hr interview as I saw them…

Bobby thinks he was bigger and surpassed Michael Jackson in terms of success, plus he didn’t end up “all weirded out” like Jacko.
Jamie starting teaching Bobby French, concluding that you only need to say “ooh, moi, hmmm” and shrug your shoulders a few times to get your point across.
Bobby showed off his boxing skills, which mainly consisted of jumping around looking a prat.

Then they got on to the big stuff, and started talking about Whitney, drugs etc. It all went slightly wrong when while comparing this experience to his time in prison Jamie replied “At least I haven’t tried any sex moves on you yet“. Bobby took this obvious joke completely the wrong way and turned psycho, saying to Jamie “I would fuck you up in here“, which in itself could be miscontrued. Bobby then threatened to walk out if Jamie didn’t start respecting him, and stated “I’ll whup your ass in here, beat you all around the room“. Apart from showing the guy hasn’t got a sense of humour, it also made me think he might have experienced some advances in prison which he didn’t quite appreciate. The argument was only settled when Jamie finally answered the question “Are you gay?” in the negative.

The couple then went to sleep for about 6 hours, Jamie in the bed, Bobby on the couch (his choice).
Bobby then taught Jamie some dance moves, including the running man. Very similarly to Louis Theroux, Jamie just ended up looking like a complete nerd.

With 3 hours left, boredom seemed to set in, and Bobby recounted his Osama Bin Laden story. Apparently Osama was in love with Whitney Houston and wanted to add her to his suposed harem of lady friends. So Bobby became a target for assassination by Osama and Al-Qaeda, and he spent a good few years fearing he’d get knocked off by them. This story has a few loopholes, the main one being that Bin Laden is the number one terror suspect in the world, why would he worry about getting Bobby out of the way before nabbing Whitney?
“No, we can’t kidnap Whitney and make her my bitch, cos Mr Brown is married to her, and I’m scared of him and his freaky dance moves… he was in New Edition you know“. Nope, I can’t see Osama having that conversation somehow.

And then it was over, and Bobby went on his merry way after a klaxon sounded to let the 2 know the 24 hours was drawing to a close.

It was a good show, and I enjoyed elements of it. Where else could you see Bobby going ape shit about having sex moves pulled on him in jail? But it was quite hit and miss, and for some of the 24 minutes which the show lasted I was bored. As with all chat shows, but this more than any, the guests are what make it or break it. Future episodes feature former footballer Stan Collymore, David Gest, and Steve-O who spends the whole time getting pissed, which should be fun.

I can see this show going the route of so many these days and being picked up by America. Add in a top notch host and some A list celebrities and this could be the best thing since sliced bread.

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