Stars in Their Eyes

What is it about amateur singing shows that Saturday night ITV audiences love? I must admit that I don't really like game shows and "light entertainment" programming so I'm probably not the best person to answer this but dammit I have an opinion about it and if the internet has given us nothing else it has given us the ability to angrily publish our opinions into an apathetic electronic void. Anyways, famous for the "tonight Matthew/Leslie/Cat I'll be..." catchphrase this show takes people who sound like singing stars, make them look a bit more like those stars and give them the stage in a competition, then the public vote for the best. Although they try to look like the star, the whole show is about how much like the star they sound – so attacking it for the looks is a moot point (although they often are poor visual impressions).

Without any interest in the people or ability to "play along at home" (like in a normal quiz) the show essentially comes down to a version of those albums that you buy for cheap where songs are delivered in bad copies by unknown singers in place of the original artists. Why this has such appeal I have no idea, I mean I can understand why it works as a temporary thing but what has kept it going for over 15 years as a successful option in a competitive Saturday night market. I have no idea because I know the times I have watched it, it has been as an ironic "oh god this is awful" look at people who were being lied to by their families and friends when they were told "you know, you look/sound a lot like x". However even laughing at others has its limited appeal when done long enough along the same lines so again I'm not really getting the appeal.

The presenters never worked for me either along at least Kelly had the decency to present it all with the campness it deserved; Cat Deeley wouldn't really know charisma if it fell on her and she presents everything with the same stuck expression and approach. I suppose I can at least take heart from the fact that her career will fade with her youth (god speed). Maybe Kelly was part of the appeal, because he never took it that serious and always had a bit of a mischievous twinkle in his eye but can that account for 10 years? Overall I hate this show and honestly cannot see why the viewing public keep coming back to it year after year, "celebrity" special after celebrity special. Having a very undemanding audience in the "light entertainment on a Saturday night" crowd probably helps but this is still glorified karaoke and it mystifies me why the idea still draws a crowd (although I really wish I had come up with it originally).

Different Saturday night programmes have appealed to different people in different ways. Some people missed Gladiators the most (before it now successfully came back), some people missed Noel's House Party, but the one that always stood out to me was Stars in their Eyes (of which I do not count the show which must not be named from 2022 which just struck me as using the name to gain some following). The moment of the real Chris de Burgh surprising Ian Moor, and that being followed by another good winner in Gary Mullen as Freddie Mercury singing ''A Kind of Magic'', has got to be the peak of Saturday night ITV for me. Maybe if it were to come back it would have to be done well seeing as it can't just be ''another talent show'' and it would absolutely have to be presented by someone the least bit flamboyant or out of the ordinary in some way. If not, maybe it would just be best to leave the old episodes as they were. Perhaps it was just too quaint for this modern, seemingly ultra-capitalist, era, and you do see the odd joke in old episodes which you would hope Matthew Kelly would not make now if he did it these days, but overall it was just altogether a completely different thing from X Factor/Idols/Got Talent which are all arguably quite similar shows with ''judges'' and so on. Perhaps I would actually take it on board if Matthew Kelly criticised my impression of a singer, a bit like if Stephen Mulhern criticised my magic trick, or if Neil Buchanan criticised a drawing I did!

As one of the people who has appeared on this show i feel i must defend it, I appeared as Phil Collins Back in 1999 (i looked nothing like him before the transformation) and was amazed by the vocal talent of many of the contestants. Yes we were all pretending to sound like someone else but only the people who could sing got to the finals (i got there..lol). The one thing that is emphasised to all of us is that the lookalike part is an afterthought, first and foremost its a sound-alike show. I have my own voice but when i sang along with Phil's Songs i sounded different, thats why i did it. The show broke all TV viewing figures of its genre at the time i was on it but it is fair to say that it has had its day. Pete Bultitude.

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