This was first screened in 1990 and was billed as a " A talent show " . Unfortunately there's little talent involved since all that is required by the contestants is to dress up like a named singing star , sound like a named singing star in a karaoke contest ( It's not a talent show - It's a karaoke contest ) and the audience will vote for the contestant who's pretending to be the star they have heard of .
This leads to all sorts of difficulty since most the audience seem to be in their late 60s / early 70s and are even less cool that a biblical Philistine
. Have they ever heard of Patti Smith , Matt Johnson , PJ Harvey or Liz Fraser ? I was going to suggest that they only vote for acts that were big in the 1950s but I remember the first ever winner in the grand final was a man impersonating Nat King Cole , a very famous black singer from yesteryear . Only thing was this guy looked more like Old King Cole from the Christmas carol . You do get the feeling that if Avid Merrion turned up as Michael Jackson he'd be in with a chance of winning
" Check it out motherf***er . OOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW "
I also have a problem with the make up . Very often a contestant turns up looking exactly like they're going to be . One time a guy walked onto the show looking exactly - And I mean EXACTLY - like Phil Collins
Presenter Matthew Kelly asked " Who are you going to be ? "
" Tonight Matthew I'm going to be Phil Collins "
The audience clapped as the contestant went through the sliding doors and reappeared seconds later looking NOTHING LIKE PHIL COLLINS !
A very sad show , but I do confess that the contestants only have very good things to say about the way they're treated . I know for a fact this isn't always the case with shows where Mr and Mrs Joe Public are invited on
