I Love My Country (British TV series)

I Love My Country is a British television comedy panel game shown on BBC One which began airing on 3 August 2013 and finished on 28 September 2013. The show was originally going to be hosted by David Walliams, but after the pilot, he dropped out due to other commitments. Gabby Logan was chosen to host the full series.^[1] Frank Skinner and Micky Flanagan act as the team captains, with four celebrities on each team on every episode. On 25 October 2013, it was announced that the show had been axed after the show had attracted largely negative press reviews and struggled in the ratings.^[2]

I Love My Country
Genre	Comedy panel game
Based on	Ik hou van Holland
Directed by	Peter Orton
Presented by	Gabby Logan
Starring	Frank Skinner Micky Flanagan Jamelia
Composer	Chris Egan
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Richard Allen-Turner Toby Stevens Jon Thoday
Producer	Spencer Millman
Production location	Pinewood Studios
Running time	45 minutes
Production companies	Avalon Television Talpa BBC Scotland
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	3 August (2013-08-03) – 28 September 2013 (2013-09-28)
Related
I Love My Country

The theme song for the show was "One Vision" by Queen.

Format

The show is based on the Dutch Ik hou van Holland format by Talpa, which has been sold to several countries. Hosted by Gabby Logan, the show features two teams of four well-known celebrities, led by the team captains, Micky Flanagan and Frank Skinner. The aim of the game being to see how much they know about their country (the United Kingdom). Each team member takes part in a series of games and challenges. The team with the most points at the end of the show wins for that episode. The show features live music from a house band fronted by singer Jamelia.

Episode Guide

The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the shows:

  – indicates Frank's team won

  – indicates Micky's team won

Show	Frank's Team	Micky's Team	Original air date
1	Susanna Reid, Tom Ellis and Charlotte Salt	James Martin, Ricky Norwood and Helen George	3 August 2013
2	Len Goodman, Christine Bleakley and Jonnie Peacock	Larry Lamb, Melanie C and Chelsee Healey	10 August 2013
3	Michael Ball, Faye Tozer and Greg Rutherford	Sally Lindsay, Billy Boyd and Gemma Atkinson	17 August 2013
4	Eamonn Holmes, Iwan Thomas and Helen Flanagan	Dougie Poynter, Martine McCutcheon and Kelly Holmes	24 August 2013
5	Chris Packham, Rita Simons and Tinchy Stryder	Rachel Riley, Alex Jones and Peter Shilton	31 August 2013
6	Edith Bowman, Rebecca Adlington and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen	Tyger Drew-Honey, Dan Walker and Kate Humble	14 September 2013
7	Brian Belo, Kelly Smith and Tina Hobley/Kenny Logan[fn 1]	Natalie Cassidy, Steve Backshall and Martin Kemp	21 September 2013
8	Jade Jones, Sara Cox and Duncan Bannatyne	Ashley Banjo, Will Mellor, and Patsy Palmer	28 September 2013

Scores

Frank	Micky
Series wins (0 drawn)
0	1
Episode wins (0 drawn)
1	7

Reception

The show received mostly negative reviews from critics. It was described as "a shapeless shambles",^[3] "idiot TV at its worst"^[4] and "little short of treason".^[5] Due to these overwhelmingly negative reviews and bad ratings, the show was subsequently axed by the BBC.^[2]

Footnotes

1. Kenny Logan was a last minute replacement when Tina Hobley fell ill during filming.