Too much of a good thing

In the late hours of last night I treat myself to some supper, warm apple tart with fresh cream. Although it was debatable how fresh the cream was considering it had been sitting in my fridge for a week (un-opened though i'll have you know), I poured a generous amount in the bowl and sat down to enjoy my delight, a prince in his castle with a banquet before him. But after the feast was over, I was left feeling sickened and bloatened. Which moves me onto the topic of my blog, and the program I was watching at the time, 'Alan Carr: Chatty Man'.

Now I have always been a fan of Alan Carr and I've followed his career since he first appeared on our screens. I think everyone will agree with me in saying that The Friday and Sunday Night Projects have been excellent programs to watch. But recently, I am growing tired of the lad. His chat show is nothing special and where before he seemed to be brimming with shy talent, now seems to be over-flooding with in-your-face gay humour. 'Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong' was another half an hour poorly spent. 10 dead-beat celebrities (split 5 v 5) set against each other in a series of rounds of questions. Throw in a couple of pictures, buzzers and sexual euphamisms and that's both seasons of 'Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong' in a nutshell. Just another celebrity that once I turn on the television I instantly see starring back at me, regardless of whether I turn over the channel, they will be everwhere. The only thing that his show has proved to me is that you can have too much of a good thing.

Another 'celebrity' that really annoys me, mainly for the same problem is Christopher Biggins. He was a man that I was never too familiar with when I was younger and was only ever really introduced to him through 'I'm a celebrity...'. But after this I have become aware of his long-standing acting career and why he is seen as such a Brittish Icon. Having been crowned King of the Jungle(I actually don't think that winning offers you more priviledges than just going on the program really considering that Katie Price and Peter Andre were both runners up in the year that Kerry Katona won. Although she is extremely famous now for her cataclysmic health levels.) he has gone on to feature in many iconic Brittish television programs such as Come down with me and Psycoville off the top of my head. The latter of which when I heard the news of scared me half to death. Being a major fan of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, the team behind 'Psycoville' and 'The League of Gentlemen', I shuddered at the thought that Biggins might ruin the work of Shearsmith and Pemberton, who are notable for their signature dark and dreary comic humour.

Not to sound like I'm homophobic which I realise is how it may be percieved, but moving onto comedy duo's and Horne and Corden have also suffered the same fate, but have only gone even further than the last two and released a film that has been dubbed 'profoundly awful', 4.1/10 and left the lads with a crossroads in terms of a career-move.
This all started as Gavin and Stacey was released to to the BBC audiences nationwide with excellent reviews. The next step obviously being to make a second series and they capped it all off with a Christmas special. Ratings soared, leaving the two boys with their faces on the front cover of NME magazine and in the media spotlight, the doors were wide open for them to do as they wished. BBC gave them their own sketch show on BBC3. Not prime-time telly but good enough. Although 817,000 viewers tuned it to watch it, making it the most most watched debut for a comedy series on BBC Three of all time, the reviews were horrendous. Everyone from The Sun to The Times criticed how crude it was and how artlessly it was done. Rating dropped after this and the final episode only drew in a mere 434,000 viewers. The series was branded a flop and it will be suprising to see it come back. Following this though, the lads were still riding on a wave of fame after the success of 'Gavin and Stacey' and whatever they managed to salvage from 'Horne and Corden'. So they then decided to turn their talent to film, thinking 'well we fucked up with Horne and Corden so let's go all out on a hollywood blockbuster and win them back!' Yeah I don't think it works like that. Lesbian Vampire Killers was released to cinemas accross the country in 2009 and would you believe it, recieved extremely bad reviews. But this again just shows me that you can have too much of a good thing. I doubt that was why the film suffered, most likely through extremly poor writing and rushed prduction.


One of example though of a comedy-duo who have spaced-out their 'meals' (this being a metaphor for your TV shows) well is Mitchell and Webb. These two men are argueably the most under-rated comedy act in Britain and are a fine example of how your career should look. Okay so their film wasn't great and recieved mediocre rating, an average of 2 and a half star, but even that's better than Lesbian Vampire Killers. But with a long-running multi-award winning TV series as well as a sketch show (aired on BBC2) into it's 3rd series it's not hard to see why these guys haven't lost their fans and are still riding the wave of success.

Jack Turner, Sky Sports