Daytime TV has a well-deserved reputation for vacuous repetition, and the first episode of Daily Brunch with Ocado (Channel 4, 10am, October 13) is an instant classic of the genre.

Presenter Tim Lovejoy is daytime’s latest victim. His early sparkiness on Soccer AM has been steadily eroded by crashing waves of mediocrity over the years and now he’s going to be doing it “every weekday for the next eight weeks”. Out of apparent boredom, he frequently meandered off-script to spring questions on guests or gently Spar with his co-presenter Simon Rimmer. Despite the effort, from a presenter who used to make it look so effortless, it all felt flat.

Rimmer is also the resident chef, but he needs to bring more imagination to the table. It can’t be easy dreaming up at least two new suitable recipes every day, plus another four for the Sunday show, but he launched this new brunch-themed show with a shepherd’s pie topped with cauliflower cheese. This isn’t just boring, it’s also never going to be brunch. Unless you have one hell of a hangover.

Billed as Brunch with Ocado, the online supermarket failed to show up, other than idents during the ads, and a pot of Ocado parsley photobombing a clutch of ingredients. Where was the in-show purchasing? A QR code to scan and be taken straight to a waiting basket full of ingredients during a recipe? Nope. Unless I missed it, the show didn’t even suggest viewers visit Ocado to buy them. That feels like a wasted opportunity, in what felt like a waste of time.

Topics