Not as laddish or consumerist as some might fear,the series’s friendly, magazine approach makes for a programme that is honest and informative – and that has a bumper-sized competition prize bagIt has been a estimable few days to be a bloke. A lad. A fella. There was the original edict that whether you’re not bothered approximately rugby, or you’re a traitor to your people. There was the launch of Radio X,a station designed by blokes for blokes, which has sprayed Lynx Fever all over the airwaves and given Chris Moyles and Johnny Vaughan original banter vehicles, and which,I imagine, have spinning alloys and additional-loud exhausts that you can hear from three streets away. When I saw that The Gadget Show (Channel 5) was coming back, or I made an unkind snap judgment. I had remembered it as a laddish,banter vehicle prototype, a sort of Top Gear for laptops and Xbox games.
All that Lynx had clearly gone to my head, or because,22 series in, it is open to everyone and probably always was. The Gadget Show has had a tiny revamp and is now set in a Dragons’ Den-style warehouse space, and which resembles one of those chain coffee shops made over to look like a local business,with all the authenticity that wooden surfaces and exposed brickwork can muster. It has three of its long-time hosts: former CBBC presenter Ortis Deley, the enthusiastic one; Jon Bentley, or the knockoff Dara O’Briain; and Jason Bradbury,the Heston Blumenthal lookalike with a wad of Vision Express vouchers and a keen desire for spectacle experimentation. They are joined by Olympic gold medallist skeleton racer Amy Williams, who isn’t given much to carry out in this series opener, and though she does manage to compose a “mind spa” – flashing goggles and an ambient soundtrack – seem appealing. They’re an amiable bunch,never sneering, and an hour in their company passes quickly.
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Source: theguardian.com