No it's not Jesus, it's Gail Porter without any make up on. Easy mistake to make.

>there is some shit 'comedy' on ch4 about
>pretending to be blind.


Erm... fairly sure it wasn't meant to be a comedy. Though bits were funny. And how Hughes got away with one particular joke, I don't know.

>there is some shit 'comedy' on ch4 about pretending to be blind.
>A thousand times more offensive than Brass EYe could ever be.
>TV Hell.

i'm not sure what this means. what is offensive about it? i'm interested to know.

>there is some shit 'comedy' on ch4 about pretending to be blind.
>A thousand times more offensive than Brass EYe could ever be.
>TV Hell.
>

You've missed the point.

> how Hughes got away with one particular joke, I don't know.

The mirror?

"Celebrity Blind Man's Buff" was great.

Compare this show to the similarly titled "Celebrity Sleepover" on BBC1 beforehand and you'll understand why I'll still defend C4's output as a worthwhile alternative.

I'm not saying "CBMB" was Bronowski's "Ascent of Man" or anything, but it took a stupid, listings-mag friendly, high-concept formula and wrung something quite genuinely moving and thought provoking out of it.

Billed as a novelty celeb show, it managed instead to be a wake-up call about how able bodied people take their gifts for granted. It even found time to do the impossible and make Gail Porter seem less like one of those Japanese dolls where you pull the head out on a string and they gibber at you.

The celebrity aspect was the least important element - a hook to draw in viewers, but then abandoned as soon as the show got going. That alone was refreshing. I have no time for Linda Robson or Gail Porter (and baulked at watching a show built upon their resistable charms), but it didn't seem to matter who was in the show, since you were invited to think, not about the celebs, but ordinary blind and partially sighted people instead. With their glasses on, they ceased to be showbiz bods. It turned into a programme about three blind people trying to get on trains. Which I found fascinating.

The moment when their sighted helpers left them to do the last stage of the journey in the company of a genuine blind person was beautifully panic inducing. "Oh no, now they can't see at all. They're going to get killed" you thought without realising that this is an everyday occurence for hundreds of thousands of people.

And the description of what it's like to walk with a guide dog will stay with me forever. The idea that you are lost in space, unaware of your surroundings, because the dog stops you making any physical contact with your environment. You just relax and turn up ten minutes later at your destination. Mind blowing.

I'm sure evryone else loathed it as an example of pleb programming at its worst, but it managed to entertain, inform and uplift. Maybe you should all have videoed it instead of BES. You might have woken up less disappointed and soiled the next morning.

When C4 do put their mind inot some popularist programming, they do it properly. They do do most things well, really.

It seems they do care a little, really. Cricket, quiz shows, comedy, whatever...they don't make it any more stupid than it has to be. I didn't see CBMB. I didn't want to. But given a straight choice between that and CS(O), it's no question. Just like I didn't like 'Teachers', but I'd watch it above anything with Ross Kemp in it. I don't like ER, but I'd watch it over Casualty.

Other channels have excellent programmes as the exception. With C4, a duff programme, or at least one not thoughtfully done, is the exception.

CBMB, fair enough. Saw the second half and it did seem sincere and out to make serious points. Celebrity Sleepover I did sit through, just because it seemed like it had been carefully conceived by a team of mad people. It might just be the worst thing I've ever seen on television.



(Apart from Metrosexuality.)

A side-swipe, Justin? Where's Steve Berry when you need him?

Did he defend Metrosexuality ever?

No, that was a reflex action where I have to say the worst TV programme ever made has to be Metrosexuality. Just as: ask me the worst film ever made and I will say Notting Hill. Do I mean these things? I'm as certain as I can be...

Not intended to be a dig at Steve, it wasn't honestly.

Celebrity Sleepover next week is Michael Winner. It's a rotten format, stagey and pointless, but I'm setting the video on the understanding that it might turn out to be another "When Louis Met Jimmy". (Obviously I'm not expecting something of that standard, but Winner must be worth tuning in for. The clip looked amazing. Winner huffing and puffing round his host's market stall. "I can't wrap FLOWERS!" bellowed the beetroot faced buffoon.)

BTW, in this week's CSO, the clip of Vanessa Feltz storming off the netball court insisting "That's enough. You've got enough footage now" was pretty good. Whoever edited that in was clearly furious with her. It broke the illusion of "reality TV" by revealing that the whole thing was being staged scene by scene for the cameras. Extremely odd for a BBC1 primetime fluffdoc.

> Did he defend Metrosexuality ever?

Come on, he can't perform miracles. NO-ONE can defend Metrosexuality.

>Come on, he can't perform miracles.

What, jesus?

>"Celebrity Blind Man's Buff" was great.
>
2:1 Channel 5 use Peter Cook's idea of Celebrity Suicide.

Fingers crossed for "Blow Your Tits Up"

>>Come on, he can't perform miracles.
>
>What, jesus?

Jesus certainly couldn't defend Metrosexuality.

>>>Come on, he can't perform miracles.
>>
>>What, jesus?
>
>Jesus certainly couldn't defend Metrosexuality.

I bet he could.

You ask him then.

He says he's got a cold so he can't right now. I believe him.

He told me he was washing his hair!

Right, he can fuck off.

"Whore washed my feet and then dried them with her own hair!!"

Jeffrey Archer? No, it's that Jesus bloke again.

>No, that was a reflex action where I have to say the worst TV programme ever made has to be Metrosexuality.

>Not intended to be a dig at Steve, it wasn't honestly.

Don't fret yourse'n, Justin. I thought it was shite too. Apparently, we're in the majority, there, although a significant minority enjoyed it very much. Each to their own, as I say.

Ah, *that's* where my message about Metrosexuality ended up. Fair enough, Steve. But is Metrosexuality being recommissioned?

>Ah, *that's* where my message about Metrosexuality ended up. Fair enough, Steve. But is Metrosexuality being recommissioned?

Not a clue, I'm afraid. I'll ask around. If it is, or isn't, I'm sure there'll be reasons.

Yeah like the reason of its unparalleled shitness