Bad Bridesmaid, ITV 2, review: Mining female friendships and pre-wedding jitters for laughs

Effortlessly embarrassing real relatives will always trump a 'comedy-reality-hybrid' creation

Cringe-making: Bad Bridesmaid features an actor attempting to pass herself off as a real friend and wreaking havoc (ITV)

After 10,000-plus years of British culture, where have we arrived? At cringe-making hidden camera shows like Bad Bridesmaid, which began last night on ITV2.

Capitalising on the success of films like Bridesmaids and TV like Don't Tell the Bride, this six-episode series mines female friendships and pre-wedding jitters for laughs, via a format ITV's press release calls "comedy-reality-hybrid".

Like Channel 4's short-lived squirm-o-vision series My New Best Friend, Bad Bridesmaid features an actor attempting to pass herself off as a real friend and wreaking havoc. This time, the setting is a hen party and the bride is in on the joke, but must go along with every humiliating suggestion. If she manages to keep the other hens clueless for an entire weekend, she'll win a fabulous all-expenses-paid honeymoon. Also hilarity ensues. Hopefully.

This week's hen party were down-to-earth Forest of Dean folk, so Bad Bridesmaid "Francesca", an attention-seeking Sloane intent on stealing the limelight, was tailor-made to get up their noses. There was some amusement to be had in watching the other hens progress from nervous giggles to outright hostility, but the behaviour of Francesca (aka comedian Anna Morris) was never outrageous enough to really entertain.

Effortlessly embarrassing real relatives will always trump a "comedy-reality-hybrid" creation, and there's no shortage of the former on television already.