Not so Shooting Stars

Last night saw the return of the, once groundbreaking quiz show, Shooting Stars. After a somewhat lukewarm special last Christmas the decision was made for a brand new series to be bought back to our screens. Vic and Bob return as the irreverent hosts, the genius George Dawes (Matt Lucas’s best comedy creation by far!) is still the big baby with the scores and long-standing team captain Ulrika Jonsson is back to be tormented for her new boobs, and sexual exploits for another series. However there are a couple of noticeable people missing; former team captain Will Self was replaced by the equally deadpan Jack Dee for the Christmas special and this new series and despite doing a valiant job of being miserable, one can’t help but think that he is simply trying to be Will Self, with less success. The episode also suffered from the loss of the now sober Johnny Vegas. Some of the last series’ most memorable moments involve Johnny’s drunken ramblings or Reeves and Mortimer exploiting him in stupid challenges. The producers have tried to fill the Vegas sized hole with burger van owner Angelos Epithemiou (a comic creation of someone called Dan Skinner) who although funny and holds the potential to, in some other form, be even funnier, he just can’t make up for the loss of Johnny.

Although there was some moments of classic idiotic tom-foolery that Shooting Stars fans have come to love and expect, (Vic’s performance with corn on the cob being a stand-out moment) for me the show just couldn’t live up to expectations. Even George Dawes's song, which in the past has led to such comedy gems as “Lesbians,” his version of “No scrubs” and a song about baked potatoes left a lot to be desired. The shows final challenge which in previous series has had me literally gasping for breath was, although classically random, just a little bit lacking.

The first show in the new series was a gallant effort and I’m hoping it will only get better as the series progresses, and with the current speight of boring and tired panel shows all over the television schedules it certainly still remains a brilliant satire and a breath of fresh air. However, I just can’t help thinking that the BBC would have been better off re-running, the classic series. Series which saw such questions as "True or False: Bill Cosby was the worlds first black man?, with the answer of course being false- it was Sidney Poitier. And that saw such challenges as seeing how many hoover attachements Johnny Vegas could stick to his face, and Jarvis Cocker bein given the task of throwing mini Babybel cheese at a giant poster of Judy Finnigan's face.

To remind everyone of just how funny Shooting Stars was in it hayday, here are a couple of clips that are sure to have you laughing out loud.