Come Dine With Me has Dave Lamb. Big Brother has Marcus Bentley. Match Of The Day had John Motson and this brilliant new show has Colin King and Terry McIlroy - the world's very first sitcommentators.

Played by Simon Greenall and Ian Kirkby these two are the gimmick that turns what would have been a reasonably amusing but fairly predictable sitcom into a work of utter genius.

With meaningless statistics, on-screen pie-charts and action replays they provide a hilarious blow-by-blow commentary on sports reporter Pete (played by Rafe Spall), whose love life amounts to a series of own goals and sendings-off.

In tonight's pilot episode Pete's latest potential conquest is a girl named Chloe, who is under the impression that he cares passionately about the environment (he doesn't). And we meet all his friends - best mate Rob who's engaged to an excruciating blonde named Anna and housemate Kurt, a Zimbabwean played by Waterloo Road's Chris Geere, who's obsessed with spreading the word about safe sex.

Most promising of all is Pete's nemesis Jake (Daniel Ings) - a dashingly handsome bearded eco-warrior who has just come back from watching the North Pole melt.

And here's another statistic for you: did you know Simon Greenall is also the voice of Aleksandr Orlov in the Compare The Meerkat commercials? Make this one a regular Friday night fixture.

Pete Versus Life Review: Social Commentary

Whilst it's often unfair to judge a sitcom on the strength of its pilot, Pete Versus Life displays little promise, hampered as it is by poor jokes and a comic delivery to rival a GCSE drama production.

Pete, played by Rafe Spall, is a laddish lad making a right bollocks of his 20s. Commentating on his life - everything, including what happens when he uses a made-up concern for the environment to lure young women back to his bedroom - are a couple of very unreconstructed middle-aged sports pundits: "The hand wrapped round the old bald-headed giggle stick, it's always a magic moment."

They pause the action, interpret Pete's life with stats and graphics. They can even see into his mind; know that he thinks about Wayne Rooney when he's about to reach the finishing line sooner than he'd hoped, in the bedroom, like. I don't know why they're commentating on Pete's life - maybe it's because he is trying to become a sports journalist himself. It's just one of those things you have to run with - like that documentary that was being made in The Office.

Some of this doesn't quite come off; a lot does. It's certainly ambitious, and original. The characters are great: hapless Pete; the nightmare fiancee of Pete's best mate who's coming on the stag weekend in Amsterdam because they're not just lovers, they're best friends, too; the inappropriate commentators. And at times, in an awkward kind of way, it's very funny.

Meet the cast and crew of Pete vs Life

Channel 4 has high hopes for its new sitcom, Pete Versus Life - but it's a show that almost never got made. An interview by Chortle.

Rafe Spall interview

In a new C4 sitcom, Rafe Spall plays Pete, a young journalist who always seems to do the wrong thing.

C4 orders full run of Pete v Life

Channel 4 has fast-tracked Comedy Showcase pilot Pete V Life to a full run. The comedy will no longer air as part of the season of comedy pilots, it will instead go straight to a five-part series next May.