Can You Bank On Me?, Monday 9pm, BBC One

The latest piece of Recession TV to be wrung out of the Beeb’s brainstorming bunker, Can You Bank on Me? last night threw two EVIL, COLD-HEARTED bankers head-first into the rabid jaws of a couple of struggling, credit-crunched companies, offering them redemption if they could turn their fortunes around, as well as the chance for us plebs to have a good old moan at them.

Griselda Anderson-Wheeler – a cocky Sloane Ranger presumably picked because she has the poshest name BBC researchers could find – was sent off to a work in tatty seaside guesthouse in Blackpool, while Amit Patel, an ex-property magnate, fared slightly better with a week-long trip to an struggling organic dairy farm.

Of course, all this was merely an excuse for us to guffaw at poshos having to don an apron and serve up cream of mushroom soup to some Lancastrian pensioners, or tinker with a cow’s udder, and the whole thing was more like the first half-hour of an episode of The Apprentice than any thoughtful look at the effects of the recession.

In fact, more or less the same effect could’ve been achieved by shoving poor Griselda in a pair of stocks outside Blackpool Pleasure Beach and inviting holidaymakers to throw sodden sponges in her face for £1 a pop. “Soak the banker” - now there’s a recession-proof moneyspinner.

There were a few entertaining moments, such as Griselda carefully explaining to the restaurant manager that her Dorothy Perkins storecard had single-handedly brought the economy to its knees, but the point of the whole exercise was never entirely clear.

Furthermore, whether a shoddy hotel – where the wallpaper hasn’t been changed since 1972 and a glass of orange juice is still considered a starter – even deserves to survive in 2009 is entirely questionable in itself.