Radar: My Cultural Picks 27.10.25
- Andrew Jamison
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
Read about my latest television picks here.
Big fringe; big castle; big lies – Traitors must be back. And this time it’s the celebrity version. If, like me, you are a sceptic of celebrity versions of reality TV programmes – because, well, aren’t celebrities just normal people? – you may well be watching this with a critical eye. We live in an age where the line between normal person and celebrity is blurring, thanks (I think I mean thanks) to social media platforms such as Youtube and Instagram. Indeed, increasingly I watch celebrity versions of these programmes and think to myself: who is that? So, the question this latest iteration of Traitors leaves me with is: what or who is a celebrity nowadays? Don’t the ‘normal’ people who go on reality TV shows end up being celebrities by dint of being on the show anyway? This situation has led to certain ‘celebrities’ - who are really just stars from reality TV shows – making a living out of what I like to call the reality TV show circuit e.g.: ‘Masterchef’; ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’; ‘Mastermind’ (one of the more palatable ones, if a bit of a tired format) and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ Is it that celebrities are becoming more normal or that everyone now thinks they are a celebrity? I think with the advent of social media it is more the latter, but I don’t always think this is a bad thing, if the person in question has done something to achieve their status, that is.
I think the reason there is such an appetite for celebrity specials is that it gives the masses reassurance that these people we put on a podium (or maybe in a goldfish bowl) are kind of the same as us (minus the expensive designer clobber, personal training regimes, and facelifts). Still, I do have my questions and concerns about how it’s seeping into literature and one look at the Times weekly bestseller list tells us that the majority of authors on it are already, to some extent, famous. How is the anonymous, talented writer supposed to prevail in these conditions? And what is it going to do to the standard of literature? Some might say that authors like Richard Osman deserve their place in the limelight as their success has been the work of many years, not just some overnight success. If that’s the case, then this changes the game for all authors and, indeed, literature itself.
I used to quite like the Jonathan Ross Friday night chat show back in the day, but I find it hard to watch him on TV after what he did to Andrew Sachs with Russell Brand back in 2008 (utterly disgraceful), indeed you’d think after doing something like that he’d have stepped away from big shows like this for good. But, at least Alan Carr is hilarious - I just hope he doesn’t get kicked out too soon.
The same principles of Celebrity Traitors can be applied to Strictly Come Dancing, which is and has always been exclusively for celebrities (and we use that term loosely in some cases). Two of the best dancers have extensive experience of performing on the West End, one of whom was Billy Elliot, yes the Billy Elliot not a backing dancer, earlier in his career. I;m struggling to get excited about the cast this year, but I’m giving it a chance as maybe it’ll be a slow-burn. But picking two dancers who are so clearly ahead of the back is just boring to watch. The whole point of Strictly is to see people improve and go on that great metaphor of our modern times, the journey. Chris McAusland was so great to watch last year because not only did he surprise the audience, the judges, nad his partner, but he surprised himself - I’m afraid I can’t see such epiphanies happening with West End performers Lewis Cope or Amber Davies. It would be good to see people like Vicky Pattison, Karen Carney or Ellie Goldstein going far, though.
This is a concept that should work, or at least it sounds really interesting and the kind of thing I would love: it’s about two very different detectives that have to deal with crime cases that happen just either side of the Irish border. The problem though is that the acting is wooden, and it’s full of cliches. It’s also very grim, more grim than I would like. I’ll give it another chance but I wasn’t impressed by the first episode. It seems to me this is an Irish crime drama made for export as opposed to being consumed by the locals - the clichés of the Presbyterian, organ playing detective who has to rush mid-hymn to the sit of a dead body in the opening scenes, for one, is just too ridiculous. ITVX is the source of some great shows, but this isn’t one of them. Is the borderline the show is intimating at is the borderline of credibility, then this show tips into its opposite.
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