Alan Partridge’s Monkey Tennis as the pre-eminent TV pitch so absurd it might actually be genius.Exploiting shut-in celebs and outsourcing camera duties are certainly creative solutions to the knotty problem of programme-making during a pandemic.
But there is a world of difference between coming up with a good title in a Zoom meeting and actually executing the idea. Someone has to try and make fetch happen.
So it fell to Jamie Wightman – a veteran series producer and director of factual TV who has worked on everything from Don’t Tell the Bride to Shed of the Year – to deliver on the promise of that glorious premise in a rapid six-week timeframe.