We watched the Never Mind The Buzzcocks Christmas special last night. It’s sorely missing Phill Jupitus but it’s still nice to have it back – and it certainly went out on a high, with Holly Johnson singing The Power of Love.
I love a Christmas Special. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Buzzcocks, tonight we’ve been Mock-ing the Week, which was in turn followed by a trailer for next week’s QI! Happy Days, as they say.
What I don’t like so much are programmes that rub along perfectly well during the year with normal people thank you very much, but for some reason feel the need to bring in ‘celebs’ at Christmas.
So I’m talking Christmas Bake-Offs/Sewing Bees/etc. The appeal of them, usually, is ordinary people doing extraordinary things – there’s something lacking, even a bit pointless, seeing celebs faffing about.
In the case of Sewing Bee one of last Christmas’s celebrity contestants, Sara Pascoe, has subsequently been cast as the new host – so I suppose I can let her off (in a “tax deductible” kind of way) by claiming last year as an audition, rather than just aimless messing around.
In fact, also working very much in her favour, I remember one evening last Christmas we stumbled upon a recording of her stand-up show on some channel or other – it was very, very, very funny (but also very, very, very rude).
I’m old enough to remember when female comedians were the exception (although we’re talking Joyce Grenfell and Victoria Wood, so they were extraordinary exceptions!) whereas nowadays there are lots of them, Sara P being one of the best (Maisie Adam is another). And it’s great to see them becoming more and more well-known, appearing more and more on TV…
…Just not in ‘Celebrity Specials’! Please!!
Andrew Curnow's Ramblings 