Celebrity Sabotage (ITV1)
You know a show must be stage-managed when a celebrity is revealed — and everyone recognises them. No one ever says, ‘Who are you? Are you meant to be famous?’
Never once on The Masked Singer, for instance, has a sweaty face poked out of a costume to be greeted by a baffled look from the judges.
At best, I’d be going, ‘Oh, it’s you! Didn’t I see you on MasterChef? Name’s on the tip of my tongue!’
In the pre-internet era, when the news cycle still had a silly season, one reliable space-filler was to send a junior reporter into a shopping precinct with photos of various royals and politicians, to see how many people could recognise them. Invariably, many shoppers couldn’t name a single one.
But as members of the public discovered they’d been pranked by semi-famous comedians and influencers on Celebrity Sabotage, all of them reacted as though members of their own family had appeared.
‘Sam Thompson!’ gasped one, as he spotted a bloke who used to be on Made In Chelsea, and is now just famous for being famous.
‘GK Barry,’ marvelled another, spying a TikTok performer who’s appeared on Loose Women a couple of times. I couldn’t tell GK Barry from TK Maxx, and neither, I suspect, could most of the country.
Sam and GK spent much of the hour, along with fellow celebs Joel Dommett and Judi Love, lurking off-screen or appearing under heavy disguises. The cruel fact is that all of them could have been wearing name badges and they’d still be unrecognisable.
Comedian Joel Dommett (pictured) hosts Celebrity Sabotage alongside Judi Love, Sam Thompson and GK Barry
The format of Celebrity Sabotage is hopelessly overworked, with new presenters and guest stars each week, and a show-within-a-show set-up to ensure that players are even more confused than viewers.
For the opening episode, Dragon’s Den businesswoman Sara Davies posed as the host of a game show called The Applicant, set at a country estate and blatantly modelled on The Apprentice.
Six would-be tycoons tackled tasks, such as filming a promotional video or organising a yoga workshop. Behind the scenes, from a cellar HQ filled with giant screens like a supervillain’s lair, the celebs planned pranks.
They flicked yoghurt from a height, so that the players would think they’d been splattered by a bird, and dressed up as paintballers or gardeners to cause disruption.
Judi lurked under a table at a wedding venue to make the pyramid of champagne glasses collapse. Sam, or possibly Joel (bet you can’t tell the difference either) wore a suit of armour, while Joel (maybe it was Sam) hid inside an armchair.
This week’s special guest was veteran comic Jo Brand, who managed to look both bored and bewildered throughout, like a woman roped into playing a video game by her grandchildren.
She had no idea what the rules were, or why anyone would think it was fun — she just wanted to get to the end of the day unscathed. It’s a familiar feeling.
