... Thinks Panel Shows Are Better Without Women?

Danny Cohen, the BBC's Director of TV, has vowed to banish the all-male panel show, saying it is 'unacceptable' to not have women in the show. Fantastic for the feminist within me, but not so good for the part of me that actually wants to be entertained.

Cohen's promise comes after criticisms from the likes of Victoria Wood and Jo Brand, labelling panel shows 'testosterone-fuelled', as well as a report from the BBC Trust condemning the lack of female voice on such shows. From now on, any panel show filmed by the BBC will have at least one female on the panel. But what's the point of just shoving them on there to cover their backs, when they don't really add anything to the show?

I love comedy. I watch pretty much every panel show going, and go to stand-up gigs too. Yet I'm yet to find a single female comedian who I would actually pay to see live. Some do thrive in the panel show set-up, take Jo Brand on QI, but the majority rely on bitchiness or their complaints of diets and divorce. It just isn't entertaining. Female comedians need to have balls in their performance to succeed (excuse the pun). 

I'm not sure what it is that makes female comedians so meek: maybe it's the fear of being judged or criticised; maybe living in a male-dominated world has condemned them to a life of silence; or maybe they're just not as good at it. 

I'm sure feminists will rage at me for this, but women just aren't as good as some things as men are. It works the other way round too, but comedy is definitely a man's forte. We need women who have an original comedic insight, not multiple women regurgitating the same comments on PMS. 

I'll still be watching the panel shows with this new set-up. I doubt I'll even notice the difference. The audience, and the female comedian, will be fully aware that she is only there to avoid sexist complaints, and she'll carry on pitching in 3 seconds of not-so-brilliant jokes before fading into the background. The BBC need to be much less concerned with offending, and more concerned with entertaining.