KOMBAT OPERA PRESENTS SPOUSE CHANGE (Sunday 4th March, BBC2, 10pm)

Kombat Opera's TV debut was back in 2001 as part of little-remembered late-night BBC2 Simon Munnery vehicle Attention Scum, in which the composer Richard Thomas and opera singer Lore Lixemberg would perform insults in the form of brief operatic vignettes. Thomas' next project was the controversial Jerry Springer the Opera, the first act of which is The Jerry Springer Show (or an exaggerated approximation of it) reimagined as an opera. Kombat Opera Presents is Thomas' attempt to do the same for five other TV programmes. Last week's episode was an amusing recreation of The Apprentice (renamed The Applicants, allowing for a delightfully childish play on words – think about it), and I'm sure you can work out for yourselves which show 'Spouse Change' was parodying.

It was 'Wife Swap'.

The families involved in the 'spouse change' were Roy and Darryl Gay, a bohemian gay couple from Pennsylvania; and Chester and Gloria Winchester, racist, homophobic born-again Christians from Alabama, who “believe every word of the Bible, including words that are not in the Bible”. Cue culture clash!

Kombat Opera Presents it at its best when playing with its own form, such as when the choir of opera singers sing the on-screen captions, or interrupt the narrator, the only character who doesn't sing all of their dialogue, a role performed this week by Simon 'Michael off I'm Alan Partridge' Greenall doing an American accent (and doing it quite well). It is these moments that are, obviously, unique to this show.

Putting the opera to one side and concentrating on the comedy, there is a lot to like about Kombat Opera Presents in this respect, too, such as Darryl's reaction to the Winchester's trailer (“this is like eye rape!”), and a nice visual gag when Gloria, in an attempt to “cure” Roy of his sinful homosexuality, discards some photos that they have in their lounge – Elton John, then Wham, then Tom Cruise...

Jerry Springer the Opera was primarily a satire on trash TV culture, but Kombat Opera is perhaps more light-hearted in tone, and while this clash of redneck and homosexual does initially seem to be satirical, it's really just a way of creating a situation that lends itself to humour. Similarly, Spouse Change doesn't really have any point to make about Wife Swap or reality TV – other than a comment about it being the same every week, the show isn't critiqued at all, and the parody does seem affectionate rather than attacking. Of note is that both episodes so far have included material about the church and Christians, perhaps inspired by the hate campaign waged on Richard Thomas and co-writer Stewart Lee by Christian Voice over 'Jerry Springer The Opera'. Stewart Lee dealt with this by including material in his stand-up that he knew would be even more offensive to Christian Voice; this could be Thomas's attempt to do the same.

However, I don't think that Thomas's overall aim is to satirize, but rather to amuse, at which he is mostly successful. There are a few songs that drag for just a little bit too long, and the end of the episode was something of an anti-climax, but on the whole Kombat Opera Presents is an innovative and funny comedy show, which is a rarity in these times of prank-wankery like 'Balls of Steel', non-comedy like Catherine Tate and Ricky Fucking Gervias. I think it's unlikely that there will be a second series, not due to the BBC being shit this time, but I think the show's format dictates that it won't be possible to produce too many episodes without becoming repetitive and without the novelty wearing off. But don't worry about that – enjoy it while it lasts.