WHAT on earth has happened to Thermoman?
Occasionally I used to tune into My Hero (BBC1, Friday), when Ardal O'Hanlon played the alien who married earthling nurse Janet and played havoc with the lives of her family and work colleagues.
Now his role has been taken over by the far more alien presence that is James Dreyfus, with his gurning expressions and clownish behaviour. He spent last Friday's episode trying to win Janet's affection by spraying himself with 'essence of cat', because she loved moggies.
Unfortunately, growing a tail and coughing up a fur ball was never going to rival a romantic meal for two by candlelight. No wonder Janet is now of a mind to send this particular alien back to his mother planet!
The concept of this series worked previously because of the quirky Irish charm of Ardal O'Hanlon. It was easy to understand why Janet would have fallen in love with the man from Ultron in the first place.
With the arrival of Dreyfus as the reincarnation of George Sunday/Thermoman, the magic has gone. And, despite the best efforts of Geraldine McNulty as the wonderfully malicious health centre receptionist Mrs Raven, the writing is on the wall.
Speaking of which, is anyone still watching the disaster that is Love Island (ITV1, too many nights!)? I took a look on Sunday to find Bombhead from Hollyoaks blubbering and trashing the set, because the blonde centrefold pin-up with the annoying speech pattern only wanted to be friends. He had actually thought she was 'the one'. Poor deluded boy!
Finally, we are now down to the final 10 in the search for a fresh new face' to play Maria in Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of The Sound of Music at the London Palladium.
In Saturday's episode of How Do We Solve A Problem Like Maria (BBC1) the 20 girls from whom the final 10 were chosen had to perform in front of a mixture of theatre critics and Lloyd Webber's celebrity chums.
Among these was professional Scouser Cilla Black, who had the nerve to make some comment about how talent was more important than training as far as the voice was concerned, stating the example of how she was 'discovered' by Brian Epstein.
With an annoying whine like yours, Cilla, I think the word luck was the overriding factor in your rise to fame.
One of the dilemmas exercising the minds of the panel on Saturday was How Do You Solve A Problem Like Simona? They worked themselves into a lather about the fact that the Romanian contestant talks and sings with an accent.
Excuse me, but wasn't Maria from Austria, not the Home Counties? A Romanian accent is far closer to how the real Maria would have spoken than Julie Andrews' clipped English vowels, so shouldn't they be asking Simona to coach the rest of the cast to sound like her?
Just imagine it - a production of The Sound of Music in which you could actually believe that the characters lived in Salzburg!
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