BEST OF THE REST
MAKE ME FAMOUS
BBC1, 9.05pm
THE often devastating impact of fast fame on reality TV contestants is laid bare in this slick drama written by Reggie Yates.
Grantchester vicar Tom Brittney plays 24-year-old Billy Fearon, who shoots to fame on the show Love Or Lust, which might as well be Love Island.
He’s just won the show and now everyone wants a piece of him – selfies, interviews, promo deals. But fast forward a year and things are a little different. The cast of his season are old news, producers are bringing in the next bunch and the afterglow of fame and fortune is wearing off.
The action flips back to his audition process, with casting agents played by Nina Sosanya and Aiysha Hart, as they vet him for the show.
He was arrogant then, cocky, ready for the best summer of his life. But now his mood rests on the social media tags and whether he’s loved or loathed.
It’s a struggle as Billy’s reputation hangs in the balance.
ROSS KEMP:
LIVING WITH PAINKILLER ADDICTION
ITV, 7.30pm
ANOTHER shocking investigation from the filmmaker, as he explores the hidden crisis of painkiller addiction.
An estimated 500,000 people in Britain are addicted to prescription opioids and it’s a growing crisis.
“I’d wake up and take three co-codamol for breakfast, then take three more an hour later, and so on, all day,” says Katie, who was first prescribed them for a medical condition aged 16 and became addicted for ten years.
Elsewhere, Ross meets Sherry, who tells him that she went to the doctor with a bad back after a car crash 20 years ago, but it led to a morphine addiction. “It’s poisoned me,” she says.
And in one horrifying interview, Ross speaks to a drug dealer who explains how he cuts heroin with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and sold illegally online.
“Do you worry about the people who die?” asks Ross.
“No,” comes the blunt reply. “It’s just business.”