O.T.T.

OTT (Central) continues to be miraculous for the way it maintains its shape even when melting. The same could be said for a brick of cheap ice-cream, but OTT is more nourishing - a real television breakthrough.

Victoria was a guest critic on the latest instalment of the continuously interesting, and indeed by now compulsory, Did You See? (BBC2), hosted this time by Mavis Nicholson because Ludovic Kennedy was off with flu. Ludo fronts the show to perfection, but Mavis took over without a hitch, thereby indicating the robustness of the format. One of the programmes up for discussion was O.T.T. (Central), which Victoria was generous enough to rate as highly original, even though it counts as a competitor. When it was put to Victoria that O.T.T. lacked edge, she asked why edge should be thought of as something a comedy show needed to have. At least one viewer gave a small yell of agreement at this point.

A grown-up spin-off from 'Tiswas', O.T.T. (Central) is the most original show on the air at the moment. In 'Tiswas' children stuck their heads through holes in the back of the set and thus helped fill the screen with life. Of necessity that can't happen in 'O.T.T.', but there is still a lot going on, and the penalty for getting the question wrong remains the same - your chair tilts forward and down you go into the suds. Fronting the show as well as producing it, Chris Tarrant is a lesson in relaxation to everybody else on television. His quick mind enables him to look exavtly as if he is making it all up.