Celebs with time to kill
THERE are several people in CELEBRITY MURDER MYSTERY (Channel 5, 9pm), who must have assumed their careers had peaked long ago.There’s John Sergeant for example, the BBC’s former chief political correspondent. John could be forgiven for thinking his high point came in November 1990, when his live report from outside the British embassy in Paris famously featured an impromptu appearance from a soon-to-be-toppled Margaret Thatcher.
There’s singer Sheila Ferguson, once of The Three Degrees, who surely can’t have thought she’d ever top her 70s chart heyday, when the group even won the heart of our future king.
There’s even Su Pollard – yes, they’ve managed to get Su Pollard – who must have imagined her role in the classic sitcom Hi-de-Hi! would be the hi-de-high-water mark of her fame.
Instead, it seems the pinnacle for each of them – plus Boyzone’s Keith Duffy, the Rev Richard Coles and news-reading legend (I don’t use the word lightly) Angela Rippon – has only just arrived. Yep, Celebrity Murder Mystery. It’s not a murder mystery with celebrities in it – we already have plenty of those, ta – but one of those murder mystery weekends, set a country hotel, that you and I can book to attend and be a part of, should that happen to float our boats, but where the guests this time are these six prominent personalities.
Ahead of their arrival each is assigned a character to play. Or semi-play. They’re not really expected to act as such, and in most cases that’s just as well. They’re just there to be part of the game.
“As long as we don’t wake up dead we’ll be OK!” Keith assures Sue.
As it happens, someone does come a cropper early on, after the reading of a family will has caused considerable disgruntlement.
But I shan’t reveal who, or even if it’s one of the celebs, because you’ll obviously want to watch the whole thing for yourself.We’re getting 90 whole minutes tonight, then the same tomorrow. Good job we’ve nothing else planned.
Elsewhere, seven other famous people gather for their own adventure, in this case PILGRIMAGE: THE ROAD TO ISTANBUL (BBC2, 9pm). It’s the latest in what’s become an annual pre-Easter affair, with personalties of varying faiths embarking on a journey of self-discovery.
This year’s include Edwina Currie, Adrian Chiles and Fatima Whitbread.
The Rev Richard Coles, of course, had a more pressing engagement.
Also tonight, four family members of very much the same faith return in Channel 4’s stupendous sitcom FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER (10pm).