Being Davina by Nigel Goodall

Author:Nigel Goodall [Nigel Goodall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843586845
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

ONE MORE TIME

The news, when it came, was totally unexpected. In January 2003, it was announced that Davina would replace Matthew Kelly as host of Stars In Their Eyes to present three celebrity editions that would go out as Coronation Street, Soap Stars and Legends specials over three consecutive weeks in February of that year. She would be billed as a guest presenter and would be acting caretaker of the show while Kelly’s future in television lay very much in question.

Matthew Kelly was being held by police in connection with alleged sexual abuse against a boy, who was under 16 years of age. In a statement released on his behalf by London-based law firm Kingsley Napley, the star said the accusation was not true: ‘Mr Kelly emphatically denies the allegation made against him which has come as a complete shock and surprise. He has co-operated fully today with the police and will of course continue to do so, should that be necessary. It should be noted that he has been released without charge.’ Indeed, the matter did not proceed any further and he was never charged.

Stars In Their Eyes debuted on ITV as a series of 30-minute shows in July 1990, which was then presented by Leslie Crowther. But, when Crowther was severely injured in a road accident in 1992, he was replaced by Kelly, who never missed a show apart from the odd occasion when Russ Abbott hosted a one-off Elvis Presley special, for example, and of course now for more serious reasons. First and foremost, the show was a programme about tension building up by filming the contestants at home or work before chatting to the host, and then disappearing through the Star Door to reappear seconds later in a cloud of dry ice as the star they would be mimicking. The studio audience was legally obliged to applaud after a few bars of the song. And, like so many shows of the period and since, each series culminated in a live final, in which viewers voted for their favourite performer.

It is interesting to note perhaps that among the most impersonated stars were Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Cher, George Michael and Madonna. During its peak run when Kelly hosted the show, Stars In Their Eyes attracted a record number of applicants. The series screened five years before Kelly’s arrest, for instance, had 50,000 applicants for the 60 places that were available. Needless to say the programme went on to be named the Most Popular Entertainment Show at the National Television Awards in each of the four years it was nominated. Of course, there had been other celebrity editions of the show, and perhaps none as intriguing as when the first was shown in 1998 when, perhaps for the first time on national television, a show had been dedicated to celebrities who wanted to become another celebrity. It was very much in the same vein as what Pete Waterman had observed about Kylie Minogue back in the early nineties that everyone wanted to be Kylie, except Kylie who wanted to be Madonna.

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