I TURNED the TV on a few minutes after the start of BBC1's Holiday Hit Squad last night and spent the first 10 minutes trying to work out whether it was a comedy sketch spoof or not.

But after a while it dawned on me they were being deadly serious.

Gathered around a table strewn with the day's papers and travel magazines the squad (Alice Beer, Angelica Bell and Stefan Booth) led by the mighty Nick Knowles delivered hard-hitting news about... erm, holidays.

What do you mean holidays are supposed to be fun?

You'd think it was life or death from last night's show.

"We're trying to keep on top of the latest news as and when it happens," said Alice Beer without a hint of irony.

She was talking about two weeks of sun for God's sake not an unravelling top news story on Sky News.

Reporter Angelica was dispatched on a mission to find Britain's best beach.

Knowles found the Blue Flag beach grading system confusing.

Hmm, it's not that confusing Nick if a beach doesn't have toxic sand or toilet paper floating in the sea, it generally gets a blue flag.

Perhaps this was too much of a jump from DIY SOS?

The show ended with Alice Beer giving an opinionated rant about chambermaid strikes in the Costa Del Sol.

"If you love us, don't lose us," she warned. "I support a good cause for fairer wages, but why do it in the summer holiday season?"

Sorry Alice, but what would the point of a strike be in low season when nobody was on holiday?

As the credits rolled, I was still expecting Chris Morris to appear and reveal this joke of a show was really a Brass Eye sketch.