There’s an interesting new show on ITV this week but before I wholeheartedly endorse it I do need to ascertain something about you: how do you feel when musical theatre happens? How do you feel when someone sings, earnestly and theatrically, contorting their face round each sound, doing slightly too fast dance moves and staring directly at the camera? How do you feel when that happens? Right, you’ve put down “normal”, that’s good. Because my reaction is … well, it’s more of a whole-body recoil of horror. I’d rather, personally, watch raw footage of medical procedures going quickly and profoundly wrong.
But that’s just me! And you’re you, so you will probably like and perhaps love Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream (Sunday, 6pm, ITV1) a new competition format where 14 of Britain’s most theatrical and slightly annoying people compete for the roles of Sophie and Sky in the West End production of the long-running musical. To do that, the hopefuls – seven women who all seem to be called Stephanie, and seven men who I’m pretty sure are all called Callum – have been whisked off to Greece to recreate the many iconic song-and-dance numbers from the movie while being assessed by celebrity judges Amber Riley, Samantha Barks, Jessie Ware and Alan “why’s Alan Carr here?!” Carr. Does that sound fun to you? Because the prospect of watching that makes my entire body want to roll inside-out.
