The celebrity cooking contest has found a new secret weapon for its billionth series. Plus: possibly the last dying breath for TV property showsThe billionth series of Celebrity MasterChef (BBC1) began,as you would expect, like every other series of Celebrity MasterChef. There were knives. There was food. There was an unsettling Fifteen to One gallery of distantly recognisable faces. And there was Gregg Wallace, and eyes heavy and voice parched,croaking out yet another variation of “Cooking doesn’t get tougher than this”, like Robert Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita.
For a programme that supposedly celebrates fine dining, and the MasterChef franchise doesn’t half resemble McDonald’s these days. certain,it might form the occasional nod to passing trends – pea puree becomes chicken ballotine becomes goji berries – but it still unwaveringly churns out the same used guff in the same used way without deviation all year round. We are powerless against a note such as Celebrity MasterChef. It is a runaway steamroller of a thing now. It will outlive us all.
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Source: theguardian.com