Private Eye landed in my post box today. As well as giving Space Cadets a well-deserved slating in ‘Eye TV’, the Eye hits out again the naff reality show on page nine in “How Reality TV Works”. It points out that that reality shows are pretty much recruiting actors now, rather than regular members of the public.
Unfortunately for regular readers of this blog, Charlie Skelton gets a slight kicking, too.
“While Ranie Daw and Steve Hester have some short film and theatre credits to their names, Charlie Skelton is best known as a comedy writer, co-author of a book with Victoria Coren, and, perhaps most importantly, to Space Cadets producer Ben Caudell as ‘my friend Charlie Skelton’.
”…which of the three ‘actors’ was picked to accompany the stooges? Unsurprisingly, Charlie Skelton – despite his complete lack of any acting skills having already led to several of the contestants announcing they thought he was a plant.“
This seems a tad unfair: anyone even vaguely conversant with the TV industry (and most media industries) knows it’s always been who you know, not what you do, that gets you the job in 75% of cases. Certainly, Charlie’s popularity with those few viewers Space Cadets actually had indicates he wasn’t such a bad choice, anyway.
And if we’re throwing stones, didn’t Ian Hislop get a job at the Eye essentially by hanging around Richard Ingrams until Ingrams relented and gave him the time of day?
Still, it was at least an interesting story.
