As any overage chart connoisseur will tell you, the most boring bit of Channel 4's Popworld is the records. We old-enough-to-know-betters don't spring out of bed at 9:25 to catch JoJo's new video, or watch Britney lip-synch to her latest, but to join Simon Amstell and Miquita Oliver in poking fun at the top 40's finest. All of which questions the dubious logic of putting on a two-hour "live" show that is - yikes - all about the music.

Luckily, S&M are on hand to put the evening into perspective. "Tonight," bellows Amstell in his hammy tenor, "is going to be an extravaganza of biblical proportions ... so for Christ's sake let's have some fun!" His blaspheming is lost on everyone bar, you'd hope, the girl waving her Bible. "You're the only one not going to hell," judges Amstell.

The great thing is that, with eight acts to squeeze in between 8pm and bedtime, nobody is allowed to play "one off our new album". It's the live equivalent of a Now! compilation - all killers, no fillers - with the exception of the 15 minutes of nondescript pelvic-thrusting tosh from boyband V and the duller-than-Dulwich turn by pop grandads Westlife.

Amstell sums up the 411 as "four ladies with magnificent bosoms", Rooster do their tolerable Rolling Stones-meets-Bon Jovi rock thing, Natasha Bedingfield sings about chord progressions and Estelle's version of Merry Christmas is the sparkliest festive cover of the night. Unsurprisingly for a band who could deflower any girl in the crowd with a flip of their fringes, McFly receive the evening's best reception and appear to be both singing live and playing their instruments. Still, at £25 a ticket and with no chart predictions from Madge off Neighbours and too much miming, you are better off getting up early on Sunday to watch the highlights.