Famous, Rich and Homeless (BBC1)
Psychoville (BBC2)
Famous, Rich and Homeless, made by Love Productions for BBC1, and shown over Wednesday and Thursday nights, was a mess. It almost worked, but in the end it failed. For one thing, the five participants in the experiment were not particularly famous, and I doubt if any were rich except for the Marquess of Blandford, who legged it as soon as he cottoned on. So the producers were left with a bunch of people you had vaguely heard of: a former newspaper editor, a former tennis player, a former soap star and a broadcaster. Yet the voice-over kept telling us how rich and how famous they were, as if they had managed to snag J.K. Rowling and David Beckham. It would have been more interesting if they had got a cross-section of unknown people, from a single mother on benefits to a wealthy businessman. But TV is now all about celebrities, or people who can be passed off as celebrities.
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