Book club begins new chapter without Richard and Judy
The TV Book Club, More4

By Gerard Gilbert writing in The Independent, Monday, 18 January 2010

After a miserable Christmas that saw the MD of Waterstone's lose his job, there has been a glimmer of new year cheer for high street booksellers – the return of that great engine of sales (for the lucky featured authors, at least), Richard and Judy's Book Club.
Except it's no longer Richard and Judy's, but Jo, Gok, Laila, Dave and Nathaniel's Book Club.

Actually, it was more like Jo and Dave's Book Club, as comedians Jo Brand and Dave Spikey seemed to be in charge of fellow "members", Laila Rouass, Gok Wan and Nathaniel Parker. And frankly Rouass struggled to get a word in edgeways; the former Footballers' Wives star needs to sharpen her elbows if she wants to contribute more than: "Did you really?"

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan vanished from our screens last summer having made their lucrative but disastrous switch to UKTV channel Watch (which nobody did). But the sofa-bound couple were only ever the front for the book club; the real force behind it was Amanda Ross (Jonathan's sister-in-law), whose production company, Cactus TV, made Richard & Judy, and is now making The TV Book Club.

Three out of the five club members appeared wearing glasses but it wasn't clear whether this was because they wanted to look bookish or because the show was sponsored by Specsavers. They were joined by a fourth pair of specs in Chris Evans, in to promote his autobiography – a book that he said he researched by reading lots of other celebrity autobiographies. There was something rather fitting (or depressing) about the show opening with a bunch of celebrities discussing the art of the celebrity autobiography.
More at The Independent.