Celebrity Sabotage… yes, it’s time for another show with “Celebrity” in the title, but this one is a bit different.
In this situation, the participants are actually taking part in a fake gameshow, and there’s a different one for each episode of this series, starting with The Applicant, hosted by Dragons Den‘s Sara Davies – or Zaaaaaaaaaara Dayveeeez, as she pronounces it – and it’s all fake, although they do have a feel of existing shows like The Apprentice and The Traitors.
Supposed celebrities are behind the scenes (GK Barry? Sam Thompson? Who? And Joel Dommett would expect to get paid if he turned up to the opening of an envelope)… still, as long as you don’t get caught in your escapades, there’s money up for grabs.
For the six real people who think they’re taking part in a proper gameshow, they’re a very diverse bunch, and while acting as if they’re about to meet Alan Sugar, one of these contestants doesn’t “put in 24/7. I put in 24/8, because I go that extra hour”…WTF?!
I obviously won’t list everything that goes on in the episode, but it’s safe to give a taster, in that while Sara Davies starts the gameshow with the contestants, the saboteurs – joined by Jo Brand for this opener – have to… erm… throw fake bird poo at two of the them. REALLY?! Come on, you can do better than that. Then again, it does sum up the output of most of the ‘celebrities’ involved.
There’s a slight improvement when it comes to collapsing a mountain of champagne glasses at the most inopportune moment, but this is basically Beadle’s About, albeit with even less subtlety, as they pretend to jeopardise the tasks carried out during this Apprentice-style gameshow.
Along the way, the ‘celebs’ will get together a prize pot of money for each not-very-difficult sabotage completed, and if I understood it correctly, whatever they win is split equally between the contestants.
I’m just thankful that, unlike The Chase, you CAN’T go low!
And I know this is Saturday night TV, where high budgets are not a priority, but it does all rather go on, and outstays its welcome. Hence, for me, one episode is more than enough, but I expect a lot of people will enjoy it, and it’ll run for years.
Thanks to our friends at ITV for the screener prior to release.
Celebrity Sabotage begins tomorrow night on ITV at 9pm. After broadcast, each episode will be available to stream on ITVX.
It’s unlkely to be made available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but other stuff is listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Director: Paul Newton
Producers: Dave Brighouse, Holly Dwight, Nick Jarvie
Celebrity Saboteurs: GK Barry, Joel Dommett, Judi Love, Sam Thompson
Celebrity Guest Saboteur: Jo Brand
Guest Host: Sara Davies
Voiceover: Siobhan McSweeney
Voice of Mission HQ: Simon Bird
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.