Your Face Sounds Familiar
If your show is scheduled for the summer, it’s not a vote of confidence. Autumn and winter are taken seriously, but in the sunny months, the schedules fill up with repeats and contractual obligations. If ITV had any confidence in Your Face Sounds Familiar (Saturday, at 7.30pm), it wouldn’t be cut adrift at a time when everybody’s burning their dinner in the back garden. The format contains not a single original idea. It’s Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes meets The X Factor meets The Voice meets Take Me Out. Nonetheless, it’s been oddly agreeable. During the first four weeks, there were no eliminations, and the contestants seemed genuinely supportive of each other. Also, Julian Clary, who can do no wrong in my eyes, is a judge.
Emmerdale actress Natalie Anderson and Olympian Denise Lewis have gone for nailing the sound and look, while other participants have gone for laughs. Bobby Davro hasn’t been on TV for ages, and he’s used the opportunity to the full, sending up Mick Jagger, Tom Jones and Ozzy Osbourne something rotten, before turning in a disturbing Tammy Wynette, making a cannot-be-unseen entrance on a stuffed sheep.
The real revelation has been ex-EastEnder Cheryl Fergison, who turns out to be a talented singer and possesses the most raucous laugh since Sid James turned his toes up.
This Saturday is the final of the series, and it’ll be well worth a watch. My money’s on Anderson and Fergison to take first and second in no particular order. Both deserve to win.
Michael Moran is away.
NOT TO BE MISSED
Top Of The Lake (BBC Two, Saturdays, 9.10pm)
You will be hooked by this compelling, multi-layered police drama set in New Zealand.
Call The Midwife (Drama, Tuesdays, 10pm)
Love/Hate (Channel 5, Wednesdays, 10pm)
This chilling, Dublin-set gangster story is hailed as Ireland’s answer to The Wire.