THE likes of Candid Camera and Game For A Laugh were never as funny in reality as they were in theory.

Don Joly’s Trigger Happy TV worked well for a while and here Ross Lee takes the prank into the world of the wacky with varied results.

He’s full-on and it’s sometimes a tad embarrassing to watch, especially as the bit in which he reveals it to be a gag isn’t always featured.

Best here is the assistant in the clothes shop, serving the girlfriend of a jealous bloke, commenting on her figure, getting in the cubicle with her, while all the time protesting “it’s all right, I’m gay”.

In the middle, his mate turns up announcing that he’s “got pictures of that bird you got off with on Saturday night”. “Shush, I’m doing the gay thing,” he tells him. Elsewhere, a cat eats the money the takeaway delivery man was going to be paid with and there’s an excellent sketch involving an old rocker wanting to try out some stereo equipment in a shop and leaping up and down to Rainbow’s Since You’ve Been Gone, which he turns up to full volume.

The end credits reveal a few reactions when Lee confesses it’s all an act, which does at least lend some humanity to a programme that struggles to really deliver, though at 25 minutes long you’re not risking too much by tuning in.