Meet My Folks (BBC1, Saturday)

LOUISE Butler is a good-looking 19-year-old student and like most teenagers she can't get a boyfriend that her parents approve of.

But instead of slamming her bedroom door, turning her stereo up and sulking, Louise made the crazy decision to go on national television and put her folks in charge of her love life.

Cliff and Eileen are a scary couple - he is into boxing and is determined to find the rare man who would not take advantage of his daughter while she is a former model who seems determined to flirt outrageously with anything in trousers.

Three young stallions put themselves forward to be scrutinised by this modern-day Addams family over an awkward weekend at their home.

First there was Matt who admitted he usually got on with his girlfriends' mums better than the women themselves.

Then Nigel, an arrogant model and stripogram who worked under the name Kai, and was obviously more interested in getting on TV than finding true love.

Finally we met Sam - a man with mad hair who said all he wanted was to find a woman who made him laugh.

Following an initial firing line of questions from the family some of the lads' darkest secrets were revealed over a nice cup of tea.

Then they were all given individual dares to disrupt the family dinner - the penalty if they failed was to have more embarrassing skeletons from their cupboard revealed.

But this was only the start. The rest of the weekend involved the boys having to spar in a boxing ring watched by Mr Butler and having their ex-girlfriends explain why their relationships faltered.

It was all very silly and a bit baffling as to how this information could help the parents find true love for their daughter.

At this stage one lucky man got to be eliminated and surprisingly it was the most genuine one - Sam - who was shown the door.

Cliff and Eileen explained that Sam was too much like all the other boys their daughter had dated - nice looking but not enough of a challenge for her.

And so the only man who seemed likely to make Louise happy was evicted from this ghoulish disaster, leaving the remaining Jack the Lads to face the final challenge - a lie detector test.

The test revealed Matt would not be faithful and Nigel had cheated with girlfriends' friends and was more interested in getting media exposure than falling in love.

By the end of this hour of mind-numbing nonsense, it seemed obvious that they had to choose Matt rather than the big-headed and smarmy Nige.

But the Butlers had other ideas and invited Nasty Nigel to join their daughter on holiday.

They said he was good-looking and would keep Louise on her toes - odd characteristics for a future son-in-law so don't be surprised if you see Louise back on the singles market very soon.

Published: ??/??/2003