Stacey & Joe review: Stacey Solomon runs the world, but her show is OK! magazine come to life

And in the Swash/Solomon household, as shown in the somewhat baffling new series Stacey & Joe (BBC1, Tues, 8pm), the girls hold sway, particularly Stacey Solomon.

Solomon finished third on the X Factor in 2009, behind Olly Murs and Joe McElderry, and in the 16 years since she has turned her smiley, scatty persona into a successful TV career.

A career which has allowed her to buy an Essex country home – Pickle Cottage – which at first glance looks like a tiny half-timbered retreat, but as the episode goes on reveals itself, Tardis-like, to have room after room after swimming pool, all set in a huge garden.

She also has a celebrity husband, former EastEnders actor and serial reality TV contestant Joe Swash, who is a similarly chirpy, smiley presence.

That, however, is where the similarity ends.

It should come as no surprise that Solomon comes over as less the happy-go-lucky Essex girl of her TV image, and more the hyper-focused, driven businesswoman – a woman determined to do the absolute best she can, for her and her family.

“I would just like think 'how did I get her?',” she tells the apparently ever-present cameras shadowing her and her family. “So that's why I have to make the most of it, take every opportunity and go for it.”

A teenage mum, she knows what it's like to struggle and worry, and it's very clear watching this fly-on-the-wall doco that she's absolutely determined not to go back to that.

And the drive extends to her family, where the five kids have to do the chores, and she seems responsible for all their movements.

All of this is hampered by the sixth child in the family – Joe Swash. A man who seems to have no concept of time, discipline or planning. He has dreams of building a glamping/fishing retreat, misses being home to take the kids off Stacey so she can have a business meeting, and cheerfully admits to his somewhat lax parenting.

You could imagine finding this devil-may-care attitude to be charming in small doses, but Solomon shows the patience of a saint dealing with it day-in, day-out.

Ultimately, though, while Stacey & Joe makes you want to nominate Solomon for every woman of the year award going, you still wonder what on earth it's doing on TV, especially on the BBC.

With it's set-pieces of family dinners, family holidays, and family breakfasts, it's as if the pages of OK! Magazine have come to off-white, fluffy-blanketed life.

It aimlessly flits about, from a scene of Joe forgetting something, to Stacey trying to organise something, to Joe forgetting something else

And there is an uncomfortable feeling that a lot of this is somehow linked to monetising the Swash/Solomon brand – from Stacey talking about how she's always dreamed of launching a perfume brand, to repeated shots of 'Pickle Cottage' embossed merch, to an incident in which a well-known brand of small cheese crackers gets several mentions.

It's quite entertaining watching the bickering, and the mess and the ducks pooing on the sofa, but – and, yes, I know I sound like a snob – why isn't this show on ITVBe rather than primetime BBC1?

Solomon, of course, is one of the Beeb's stable of presenters, with shows including Sort Your Life Out and Crafty Christmas, so maybe it makes sense that the channel should give one of their own a new show.

But it just shows how much power Solomon has that the BBC has given this lightweight fluff some prime airtime.

Who runs the world? Stacey Solomon, that's who.