The new Stars in Their Eyes deserves a second chance
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Version 0 of 1. In the 90s, Saturday-night telly came alive with Stars in Their Eyes. Presenters Leslie Crowther (in his Deirdre Barlow glasses and polyester suits) and his successor Matthew Kelly would announce: “By day you are an account manager but tonight … YOU.ARE.JOHNNY.MATHIS!” before a willing member of the public walked through glittery plywood doors and came out changed, like a Butlins Mr Benn. With low production values and a lack of irony, the show was in the spirit of light entertainment variety programmes such as Live at the Palladium. ITV1’s resurrection of the show last weekend was certainly divisive – but it had me smiling. In the new series, Harry Hill doesn’t attempt to recapture that era of Saturday-night television, nor does he parody it. Instead, he turns things into a celebration of British eccentricity. Last weekend, we had a why-the-hell-not cameo from Big Brother’s Brian Belo, a theme song redrawn as a nonsense sing-along and an oversized pencil parading as a participation prize. It had all the zany, chaotic feeling of a Saturday-morning kids show without any annoying puppets. Then there were the contestants. There was the seemingly conservative married couple whose transformation into Don and Phil Everly suggested otherwise, there was Olivia, whose whole pre-performance VT mainly consisted of her family repeatedly shouting the name of her hometown (“SLOUGH!”) and an Eminem-alike who was just utterly terrible. But the quality of the performances wasn’t really the point: all those who took part felt achingly real and imperfect. Quite a change from the buffed and preened reality talent-show contestants we are used to nowadays. In fact, the show was a real tonic when compared to the return of The Voice. Like Take Me Out – essentially a Blind Date reboot for the Me Generation – Stars in Theirs Eyes updates a winning formula with a modern twist. But other revived light entertainment shows appear less successful: Catchphrase and Surprise Surprise are relegated to “celebrity” or one-off specials, while the less said about Keith Lemon’s Through the Keyhole the better. Without a pair of rose-tinted nostalgia goggles, these programmes make for dull viewing. Still, I’d still like to see revived Top of the Pops, as Jools Holland proves that there is still a demand for live (or “live”) music performance on TV. And another go at The Word – quite the opposite of light entertainment – would be interesting. Although it was at times offensive and ridiculous, it was also exciting and edgy. Some might say that the internet killed Yoof TV, but imagine combining the two? So what would you revive? Let us know below. |