TV review: Dispatches/A Band for Britain

HAVING spent the past few weeks talking about Prime Minister Gordon Brown's temper tantrums, Andrew Rawnsley's Cameron Uncovered should have been his chance to prove his reputation as an objective reporter by revealing something equally sensational about the opposition leader. That he didn't may not be Rawnsley's fault so much as an inherent problem shared with other profiles that have promised to reveal the "real David Cameron" – like TS Eliot's cat Macavity, he's somehow … not there.

That is, he was there, on screen, saying all sorts of vague things and being appropriately self-deprecating (when he first ran for leader "you could get the MPs supporting me into the back of a London taxi and still have room to spare").

But, despite some searching questions by Rawnsley about the realistic outcome of Conservative pledges to cut public spending, not raise taxes and replace parts of the state with charities, not much emerged that was new.

Two moments stood out, though: shadow culture minister and recent 6 Music convert Ed Vaizey has an interesting turn of phrase for a former speechwriter. Anyone who can say "Until you've got the chicken in place who understands the modern agenda (ie, Cameron], you're not going to lay the modernising egg" – with a straight face! – should be writing for The Thick Of It.

Another highlight was Rawnsley's timely quip to Cameron: "What was it that attracted you to the billionaire Michael Ashcroft?" Political interviewers don't usually borrow questions from the likes of Mrs Merton; what next, Jeremy Paxman asking Gordon Brown: "Are you bovvered?"

Sue Perkins, if you can cast your mind back, used to be a comedian, too. She's more familiar these days as the winner of conductor competition Maestro and taster of yucky period food in The Supersizers. Searching for something else to do with her, someone has come up with the idea of A Band for Britain.

Only 30 years ago, there were more than 20,000 brass bands in Britain, apparently. Today, fewer than 500 survive, often only just, as was the case with the Dinnington Colliery band. Founded in 1904, it made it through two world wars and the miners' strike but has gone downhill since the pit was shut in 1992. The band had only six adult members (they should have 25), most of whom were related, and a couple of youngsters, but they wanted to keep going.

That's where Perkins came in. "I have nothing to tell them, I have nothing to give them, apart from lots of enthusiasm and a real love of music," she declared. Well, don't undersell yourself, Sue. You also have a range of sardonic expressions and a sarcastic voice.

The priority was to find new blood, so Sue did a local radio appeal and drove around town in a truck yelling at people with a megaphone to come to auditions. Oh, you know the score – it could be Gok or Trinny and Susannah appealing for people to strip to their undies, or Jamie wanting people to learn to cook or Mary Portas trying to improve shops – all these shows follow the same predictable formula.

In the end, they got some new members and Sue conducted them playing the theme from The Great Escape. Quite heart-warming, I suppose, and good luck to the band, but though there are more episodes to come, don't you feel like you've seen them already?