ITV’s new dating show Take Me Out launches Saturday night TV to places of joyful cheesiness and innuendo of which our parents would never have dreamt. Presenter Paddy McGuinness, off of Phoenix Nights and, yes that’s right, Gregg’s the ‘Bakers’ ads, plays cupid for 30 girls by introducing one man at a time down the ‘love lift’.

The girls then have three chances to turn their light off if the guy fails to impress them with his weight-lifting skills, Irish accent or overly-protective mum. (It was probably “Jonathan’s astounding table wrestling skills” that set the, ahem, benchmark for the rest of the series.) Any suitor who does make it to the other side of the girls’ scrutiny then gets to turn off the remaining lights until he finds a companion with just the right amount of make-up and that particularly alluring vacant expression.

Beautifully, all 26 girls who don’t get a date are back on the show next week, and the familiarity can be hilarious. There is, of course, the “bubbly” Rian from Sheffield whose light is never off, until the men get a chance, and six-foot-something Jo is a constant intimidation. Roz is “the busty one”, and Emma from Leicester has a smile which could slice onions.

Paddy definitely makes the show work. He can barely deliver an innuendo without giggling, and makes the show as transparent (sorry, clear) for the girls as he can with his favourite catchphrase, “no likey, no lighty”. He’s at his funniest when introducing the suitor to the hen-pen with increasingly risqué double-entendre. It’s a short step from “let the baker see the buns” to “let the pork see the scratchings” and, well, we can see where it’s heading.

Bearing in mind that even the show’s host calls Take Me Out a “guilty pleasure”, you could be mistaken for underestimating its quality, but there is genuine comedy in Paddy’s witty rapport with the contestants, and a hint of tragedy in those lonely faces. Most heartbreaking is the totally rejected man who skulks offstage to ‘All By Myself’. Take Me Out is a brutal and hilarious dip into the most tongue in the most cheek dating game there’ll ever be. You only have to see it, that’s all.