The Stage

TV review

Published Monday 6 September 2010 at 15:08

Big Brother scraped the bottom of the barrel several series ago, and has been remorselessly digging towards Australia ever since, so I really wasn’t expecting anything at all from Ultimate Big Brother, the show’s purported farewell.

Well, more fool me. I am hooked. A tiny recalibration of the format - populating The House with past winners and personalities - has lent the final Big Brother new life.

The gang is pretty much all here (or were, prior to eviction): Nasty Nick, Mikosi, Preston, Brian, Nikki, Nadia and Chantelle are amongst the former luminaries signed up for one final, fleeting flirtation with fame. All instantly recognisable, yet totally forgotten the second they left the screen. Like a school reunion of all the people you never quite liked enough to stay in touch with, Ultimate Big Brother exercises a shallow but undeniable fascination.

Also, the design teams deserve a mention. The credits, set and animations, based on the general theme of a funfair madhouse in hell, are quite superb.

As for the actual content, it’s the usual round of screaming, crying, sulking, inanity and exhibitionism, but in amongst the ridiculous there are moments of the sublime. Personally, I shall treasure the memory of Makosi wandering around in a day-glo green bodysuit, having been cruelly misinformed by Big Brother that it renders the wearer invisible to television cameras.

Chantelle to win. I’ve always had a soft spot for Chantelle.

Viva Blackpool, sequel to Blackpool, finds chancer Ripley Holden, now The Reverend Ripley Holden, in love. The irrefutable evidence? “I laugh because she’s genuinely funny,” confides Ripley, “not like women’s jokes at all.”

This is just one of many fine lines peppered throughout Peter Bowker’s script. Bold, brash and brazen, Viva Blackpool entertains for its full 90 minutes, with an excellent cast playing out an endearingly ridiculous plot line surrounding the theft of the Jules Rimet trophy. That’s the World Cup, to you and me.

My only beef is with the fantasy song-and-dance sequences. I don’t care that they rehash Pennies From Heaven. They’re good fun, and besides, Dennis Potter spent the last part of his career rehashing Pennies From Heaven. However, their inclusion in Viva Blackpool is actually counter-productive, threatening to kill the momentum that a caper thriller needs to survive. Anything this daft must never allow room for the audience to stop and think.

I have long campaigned for out-take shows to abandon all the unnecessary clutter of commentary, themes and hosts, leaving only a cavalcade of pure, unadulterated errors which build to hysterical climax. It would only be ten minutes long, but it would be a great ten minutes.

Paradoxically, I hold a diametrically opposed view of Great TV Mistakes. I like host Robert Webb, and the script he delivers is sharp and clever. The out-takes, however, aren’t great at all. They’re rubbish.

Episode one concentrated on continuity mistakes, most of which were barely noticeable. At one point, shaky sets came under the spotlight, with particular reference to Fawlty Towers. Which misses the point, I feel. Complaining about wobbly walls in Fawlty Towers is a bit like watching a Pink Panther movie and finding Peter Seller’s French accent unconvincing.

Viva Blackpool, BBC1, Sunday, August 29, 9pm

Ultimate Big Brother, C4, weekday evenings, 9pm

Great TV Mistakes, BBC3, Wednesday, September 1, 7pm

Harry Venning