Tuff Cheese
‘THERE was a time when entertainers trod the theatre boards before stepping before a TV camera – they lived and died by the own material in front of an audience.
| A rare sighting of Linda Barker |
Now things are different. TV is first and last. Audiences are either ignored or billed as LIVE. Presenting is no longer something actors and comics do between their vocational jobs, but a bona fide career choice.
This shift is clearly in evidence on tonights TV line-up. On BBC1 at 7pm one of the old stagers, Bruce Forsyth, hosts a new series called Didnt They Do Well.
Bruce has not aged all that well. But if for nothing else we should applaud his longevity and survival instincts. Even the title of this new gameshow owes its roots to a catchphrase of 20 years past.
On ITV at 9pm its more Challenge Anneka/Linda as With A Little Help From My Friends gets Phil Tufnell to build a cricket pavilion.
The people who present this show exist only on TV. Barker and Tuffers have no other raison detre. Tufnell was a likable enough chap who made the cricket crowd laugh, but hes now a professional Phil Tufnell.
Linda Barker is used to working with wood and MDF.
In years to come will we watch Barkers, Tuffers and their celebrity kin hammer bits of old tat together and apply a veneer of paint. If it is, best get the TV a nice blanket and a warm drink and leave it to die in its sleep.
Bruce Forsyth is 107.’
Posted: 15th, January 2004 | In: Celebrities Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
