Unworthy I know, but Comic Relief puts me in a bad mood and so I avoid it. I made an exception for last night's Comic Relief Does The Apprentice because I like the show and I'll generally watch things with Danny Baker in them.Course, that's another hour of my life I won't get back.
The format doesn't work with celebrities. People with the slightest degree of self-effacement just disappear into the background (though I couldn't decided whether Rupert Everett's early resignation because of the TV cameras was evidence of modesty or madness) leaving the foreground to be occupied by Piers Morgan and Trinny Woodall, for whom the word "blowhard" might well have been coined. I'm left with two thoughts:
1. How can Cheryl Cole pretend to be amazed by the huge cheques written by Woodall's rich mates when she's married to a Chelsea footballer who earns getting on for £100,000 a week?
2. Did Red Bull pay to have their products littered around the set, slurped on camera by Morgan and then actually referred to in conversation? And if they did it for charity, is that OK?
Of course it didn't work - isn't the whole purpose of The Apprentice that it's a load of wannabies vying for a well-paid job working for Alan Sugar? There was certainly no element in the proper show where the contestants were going all out to raise money for charity - they were doing it to get the job. Take that away and nobody is quite as motivated (apart from Trinny - who was just frightening) and so the show rather lost its purpose. Hats off to Alistair Campbell though for his negotiating technique when they were arguing over which rides to have - the look on Karen Brady's face as it struck her that she'd been done over was priceless.
ReplyDeleteI hate comic relief. See my blog if you hate it too.
ReplyDeleteI actually found it quite entertaining. Interesting to see the two tiers of "celebrity" with people like Baker and Ross Kemp clearly having some grounding in reality whereas for people like Morgan and Woodall it is all about who you know and lets just walk all over anyone else. As a programme it didn't really work because it all came down to Cole and Woodall having the richest contacts but it was good to see Campbell lose.
ReplyDeleteThere is a school of thought that says the Tweedy/Cole marriage is a 'marriage of convenience'.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it didn't work in the same way as The Apprentice proper, but I still laughed out loud several times (which was presumably the object of the exercise). The constant bickering and points-scoring between Alastair Campbell and Piers Morgan was a joy, and Trinny Woodall and Cheryl Cole made a fine double act. There was one great moment when Trinny was explaining how her exercise routine had been taught to her by a German doctor at a Swiss spa where she goes to detox, and Cheryl shot a priceless 'what the ****!' look at the camera. I also treasured the way Maureen Lipman dealt with Trinny's bossiness. So all in all, I've watched worse hours of telly.
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