TV review: The King is Dead

Published on Thursday 2 September 2010 11:22

The King Is Dead BBC3

Political wonks used to while away the time with a game called "Who'd replace the Prime Minister if he or she fell under a bus?" - as if any of them would ever get near a bus. Now the idea has been taken up by The King Is Dead, a convoluted new panel show in which the premise is that a public figure has been suddenly, but amusingly, killed and must be replaced. By, of course, a celebrity. Because the first thing that springs to mind in a scenario where the US president has died is, naturally, "But how would James Corden do if he took over?"

The very term "panel show" is an odd one; some are supposedly quizzes, like Never Mind The Buzzcocks or Have I Got News For You, but no-one much bothers to pretend any more that the point is to answer questions. They're as much an excuse for loosely themed comedy as Mock The Week's battling stand-ups, and as artificial - it's well known that those taking part usually get time to prepare their quips in advance - but much cheaper than even the most low-budget sitcom or sketch show, making them irresistible filler for cheapskate channels.

The King Is Dead's premise is that an "interview panel" (Simon Bird, Katy Wix and Nick Mohammed, though one would have been enough) ask daft questions of C-listers to see which wins the "jobs" of various public figures.

Vying to be Obama's successor were not just Corden - thankfully returning to TV after an endless absence of, ooh, weeks since his World Cup chat show - but Sarah Beeny, looking completely out of place, and Peaches Geldof, Britain's own, unrequested answer to Paris Hilton.

On being asked whether her favourite dictator was Joseph Stalin or Robert Mugabe, Ms Geldof moaned: "Oh, it's going to be one of those days, isn't it?"

Yes, Peaches, afraid so: one of those days where you get paid a nice little amount for turning up on a dopey TV show and going along with some nonsense, just because your dad's famous. Pushed for an answer, she plumped for Stalin, on the grounds that "he has a better haircut", which makes as much sense as anything else here.

Not that funny, though, is it? Neither was Corden - no surprise there, then - whose pitch was that he'd be "firm but unfair" and "not just the president of the United States, the president of your United States," a campaign soundbite so meaningless it suggested that he really could have a future in politics. For some reason, though, it had the audience in stitches, with the interview panel declaring it "the perfect answer".

There could, I suppose, be space for a show in which guests really did give their ideas for how to run the country (or even another country, as it's never quite clear why it's the US presidency they're running for).

But this isn't it: there are no policy discussions here, nothing resembling a hint of a platform. Corden was asked, for comic effect, where he stood on the question of abortion, but it was only a chance for him to do that Ricky Gervais impression he always does, yet again.

Future instalments of this silly show will apparently seek candidates to be chief of police and Father Christmas.

They'd be better trying to find a new commissioning editor for BBC3.