Room 101. Frank Skinner. Copyright: Hat Trick Productions
Room 101

Room 101 (2012)

  • TV panel show / chat show
  • BBC One
  • 2012 - 2018
  • 56 episodes (7 series)

Frank Skinner hosts Room 101, where celebrities compete in a series of themed rounds to get their most hated item banished forever.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 7,124

Press clippings Page 11

The ranty comedy show returns with a new look, a new presenter (Frank Skinner) and a new format: three guests have to compete to get their pet hates consigned to the sin bin. It all works rather well, with Robert Webb, Danny Baker and Fern Britton's banter with Skinner making this first episode feel like you're eavesdropping on a lively discussion down the pub. It's worth viewing alone for the moment the three fellas round on Fern - for slagging off Star Wars.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 20th January 2012

There's a moment when guest Danny Baker suggests that TV panel shows - "those with bottom-of-the bill comedians" - should be banished to Room 101 oblivion. It causes more than a ripple of concern. "If I put panel shows in, I'm going to be out of work, plus I don't know what'll happen to this show. We'll just have to close down," argues host Frank Skinner. And that would be a shame because the show's revamp has given it a new lease of life.

The main change is that there are three celebrity guests (Fern Britton and the wonderful Robert Webb joining Baker this time) all vying to get their pet peeves consigned to the Orwellian dumpster. So discussions are livelier and - inevitably - funnier as they squabble over each submission and spark off each other. However, you may be baffled by how many Action Man and Barbie dolls pop up as props because Skinner successfully binned them when he appeared on the show in 1995.

Jane Rackham, Radio Times, 20th January 2012

It's back, with shiny new titles, Frank Skinner in place of Paul Merton and not one but three guests competing to have pet hates banished for ever. Robert Webb, Danny Baker and Fern Britton select peeves such as homework, sci-fi, PE and punk, but it has all the awkwardness of a bad dinner party and little of the easy, intimate wit and banter of the original show; the best fun to be had is Webb's seeming disdain for the rather tedious Britton, who seems to think she's on Grumpy Old Women. Maybe future contestants - among them Alistair McGowan, Josh Groban, Sarah Millican and Alice Cooper - will make this more likeable, though they'll have a job getting laughs from the likes of Gregg Wallace, Gabby Logan and Mark Lawrenson.

Time Out, 20th January 2012

What would you put in Room 101?

The RadioTimes.com team nominate their pet peeves - tell us yours.

Radio Times, 20th January 2012

Room 101 offered a new, paired down format

Room 101 was entertaining enough as new host Frank Skinner was joined by Danny Baker, Fern Britton and Robert Webb, but this was a blander, bleached version of the classic comedy show.

Rachel Tarley, Metro, 20th January 2012

Room 101 review

It was hard not to feel that the revamp had sacrificed some of the Orwellian bite - it was all rather... primetime.

Will Parkhouse, Orange TV, 20th January 2012

Room 101 review

This is fresh enough to feel like a welcome addition to family and, in such, can be judged as a success. As long as the guests are good, we're convinced of another memorable series from Room 101.

The Comedy Journal, 20th January 2012

The format has been revamped. Frank Skinner is in the chair and, rather than chance the quality of an edition on a single guest, they've spread their bets across a panel of three, with Skinner determining which of their peeves - growing up, film and TV, etc - will descend into Room 101. There's a less whimsical, slightly harder edge to the guests' critiques; Danny Baker rails against "cool" with a written, prepared text dripping with bile, Robert Webb lays into Jeremy Kyle with undisguised scorn and even Fern Britton has a go at the homework heaped on today's kids.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 19th January 2012

This seemingly moribund series is rebooted with a new format and host, and, on tonight's evidence, it's got fresh legs. Frank Skinner takes over as presenter; and now, instead of one celebrity naming his or her bugbears, three panellists vie for their pet peeves to be banished to oblivion. The eight-part series kicks off with Fern Britton, Danny Baker and Robert Webb naming their bĂȘtes noires, and Skinner deciding after each round which one deserves entry into Room 101. In the past, the series sank or swam according to how entertaining the guest was - here, the banter creates sparks, as Skinner deftly orchestrates the conversation with the same verve he displays in Opinionated. Refreshingly, the panellists aren't the same old faces on the circuit, and each gets a chance to shine: Britton raises the men's ire by criticising sci-fi, and Baker provokes the others by nominating TV panel shows. Future episodes are likely to prove edgy, too, with John Prescott and Germaine Greer lined up. The schedules groan with panel shows, as Baker rightly notes, but there's room for this light-hearted offering celebrating the joy of a good old rant.

Vicki Power, The Telegraph, 19th January 2012

Room 101 review: Nineteen-eighty-poor

If I were your average TV personality about to send two things down the 101 chute of no return, I would undoubtedly send chat-shows-which-are-inadequately-and-unnecessarily-revamped-into-second-rate-panel-shows...and Fearne Britton.

Sarah Cox, On The Box, 19th January 2012

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