WHO do you reckon is the most powerful force in British publishing?

JK Rowling? Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown? That guy who makes squillions or pounds writing all those celebrity biographies?

No. The answer is actually Richard and Judy.

Since they launched their book club reading has never been considered so cool by the masses.

Who would've thought it? A woman who shakes like leaf in need of a swift gin, and her husband who alienated a whole generation in one swoop by dressing up as Ali G are the ones we listen to when we want a good read.

But you can't deny it, their book club has unsurfaced some gems that most of us probably wouldn't have discovered on our own.

Last night the pair stretched their net further, this time taking on kids books, in Richard and Judy's Best Kids' Books on channel 4.

The 19 books up for awards oddly seemed to mainly involve underpants.

Well, Aliens Love Underpants and The Killer Underpants were the ones that particularly caught my attention anyway, which perhaps says more about me than anything else!

But, if anything gets kids reading more it's fine by me, and to be honest the show actually made me think I wouldn't mind getting stuck into a bit of children's literature myself.