Review: Where’s Fred? ITV1 (From This Is Lancashire)

Review: Where’s Fred? ITV1

4:49pm Friday 25th May 2012 in TV By John Anson, Features editor

MOST of the time Telegraph Towers is a hive of activity and it usually takes something special to bring proceedings to a halt.

But somehow, an eccentric weatherman in a bright red ‘bubble’ car sees stories halted in mid sentence, conversations ending mid phrase and a small crowd gathering around the TV every Tuesday teatime.

There then follows a series of arguments and unscrupulous behaviour as the sneakier members of the Where’s Fred?

Appreciation Society resort to a crafty Google session in a bid to steal a march on their colleagues.

For the uninitiated, Where’s Fred? is a five minute slot on Granada News where our intrepid weatherman visits somewhere in the North West and gives us a few clues as to where it is.

It’s gloriously old fashioned nonsense — there’s no phone vote, no accompanying website, there’s not even a prize.

But we’re all hooked.

Debate rages as to whether some obscure village in south Cheshire actually exists and anyone who happens to have worked in the Lake District is immediately barred from answering when ‘our Fred’ strays too far north for our collective knowledge.

In an age where TV is all invasive and ‘in your face’ Where’s Fred? is a simple pleasure which should carry a warning. One viewing and you’ll be hooked!