TV preview, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (ITV, Saturday 9.15pm): Jeremy Clarkson hosts 20th anniversary special
The ITV quiz show returns for a week of shows with the controversial 'Top Gear' man in the driving seat, Peter Kay gives everyone a lift with an unscripted finale to his 'Car Share' sitcom, and Scandi crime drama 'The Bridge' is back for a fourth series
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Your support makes all the difference.It’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?‘s 20th anniversary celebration (actual location of celebration unknown) this week and ITV is bringing back the quiz show for a week of specials, one airing every night starting Saturday at 9.15pm.
Chris Tarrant has said he wasn’t asked to return as host (perhaps due to numerous recent legal troubles) but would have turned down the opportunity anyway as the “programme has run its course”.
With that glowing endorsement, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? reboots with Jeremy Clarkson at the helm, a natural fit for a show largely about avarice and showing off. Previews weren’t available, but it will be interesting to see if Clarkson manages to bring his trademark mix of xenophobia and machismo to proceedings. The format of the quiz has been tweaked slightly for the new run, the biggest change being the introduction of a “Ask the Host” lifeline which allows the contestant to ask Clarkson “if he knows the answer or if he has an opinion on what it might be”. Encouraging the columnist to offer an opinion might prove to be a mistake – here’s hoping there are no questions about Mexican history.
The Bank Holidays Act 1871 decreed that their must be at least one baking-based reality show broadcast over a bank holiday weekend, and on this occasion it’s Bake Off: The Professionals (Channel 4, Sunday 8pm).
Following the success of The Great British Bake Off, the BBC decided the homely aspects of its former ratings colossus was the key to its charm, leading to the arrival of last week’s Mary Berry-fronted Britain’s Best Home Cook. Channel 4, however (which now of course carries GBBO), decided that the deification of the dessert was the key to success, spawning the absurdly self-serious Bake Off: The Professionals. Patisserie is clever and all, and I would somehow manage to make an Eton Mess look like an Eton Catastrophe if I gave it a shot, but when the professionals’ creation are regarded like Mondrians and architecturally obsessed over, it doesn’t make for a very fun show.
When Peter Kay abruptly cancelled his stand-up tour earlier in the year there were all sorts of rumours about ill-health. He’s chosen to keep private the “unforeseen family reasons” behind his disappearance from public life but fortunately seems to now be doing okay, returning to the BBC with a finale episode of Peter Kay’s Car Share (BBC1, Monday 10pm). The series has always relied a great deal on ad-libbing, so, in this denouement titled Car Share: Unscripted, he and co-star Sian Gibson will rely on their chemistry alone. Fans will be hoping that car-sharing colleagues John and Kayleigh finally get it together.
Continuing the light entertainment theme, Tuesday brings The Secret Life of Five-Year-Olds (Channel 4, 8pm). Children’s ability to succinctly encapsulate existential philosophy and astutely interpret geopolitical issues has never been more welcome in this age of information bombardment. Joys of the show include a five-year-old banging a gavel and shouting: “I am President Trump. Can I have your money?”
If you’re after something a little darker, The Bridge (BBC2, Thursday 9pm) is back for a final series. The whole Scandi crime craze might have played out by this point, but this show was arguably its pinnacle, with Saga Norén being the finest protagonist it has produced. It’s been more than three years since season three concluded, but the gut-punch opening to the new season will not disappoint.
Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (ITV, Saturday 9.15pm); Bake Off: The Professionals (Sunday, Channel 4 8pm); Peter Kay’s Car Share (BBC1, Monday 10pm); The Secret Life of Five-Year-Olds (Channel 4, 8pm); The Bridge (BBC2, Thursday 9pm)
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