Celebrity Or Fame...

For anyone reading this outside of the UK and who possibly have yet to see the programme Top Gear on their television screens if it has been purchased and bought for airing in the international market, it is a programme that once was a show case for news about motoring and showing cars, testing their performance, reviewing them and giving them a rating.

Over the years it has turned into a celebration of cars in a bigger sense but now also has turned into a comedy programme with lots of comic banter between the presenters and they do crazy things with cars but most of what they do involves speed with an element of danger. One such stunt I seem to remember was going over a snow covered slope in cars as you would if skiing or playing a game of ice hockey but using cars instead of people on skates.

So you may have seen over recent days if you have been reading links around some of the blogs I link to an accident that almost cost the life of one of Top Gear's presenters Richard Hammond.

The basic premise seems to suggest that he was trying to break some kind of UK land speed record, strapped into a skeleton like vehicle with a massive aeroplane engine taking up best part of it and it reached around 280mph before something went wrong. I heard someone say today you have to think no further than the Warner Bros cartoons featuring Wile E. Coyote who tries all kinds of inventions to capture the Roadrunner including strapping a rocket to himself.

It would appear though information is scant on his medical condition, reports keep coming out that he is recovering remarkably well and we hear that he is talking, walking a little only days after being air lifted to hospital where the medical staff said that he had a significant brain injury.

Like many, I hope for a complete or as near perfect recovery but question his judgement and those of the programme makers. If he was a trained pilot or stunt driver who does such a thing for a living(accepting the dangers)or he had been trained for months/years I might go along with it but he is(and we are now returning to a topic I have mentioned before but have to return to and others have of late)being treated as a celebrity when what he does is mainly presenting to camera.

What is a celebrity? Can you ever say that anyone really is a celebrity or will it always come down to how each of us class celebrity and it is very personal to each of us?

Do we have real celebrities anymore? Surely, there has always been spin and stories put about by those that are in "Show business" and when Hollywood took off a whole industry was born...magazines, newspaper reports and of course the gossip columnists such as Hedda Hopper and Loella Parsons.

And yet because to some extent these stars were virtually recluses and the only news that reached the public were through the press there still was an air of mystery.

Perhaps now, the immediacy of the media and accessibility to "Stars" means that they have lost something.

Also, many actors of the past seemed to be different to each other James Cagney playing a gangster was very different to Humphrey Bogart as was Edward G. Robinson. Fred Astaire's dancing style was different to Gene Kelly. James Stewart was different to Gary Cooper even if many parts played were on similar lines.

And in his early days up until the film Citizen Kane was produced(and his career was all but brought to a halt by a powerful figure within the newspaper industry)you get someone exceptional like Orson Welles who worked on stage, in radio and finally films.

There probably are some wonderful exceptions today but I have difficulty finding them.

And so the same is true of television. I don't know if its just a problem in the UK or worldwide but being such a small country and having so many channels now in competition with each other chasing an ever decreasing audience that now has so many different things competing for our attention and money, in many cases the budgets available are much reduced and so more and more many programmes are now just someone able to talk to camera and either using the public to do some kind of task or they bring a "So Called" bunch of celebs in to cook meals or ride horses or dance but most of those who are bought in, the public are left asking "Who?" and often no one knows what they are famous for.

A lot of shows are just vehicles for promotion. Davina McColl's recent attempt at a chat show may've failed because of the time it was on, what it was up against but I think that the overall opinion is that it failed because she was not seen as a competent interviewer, we were promised A-list guests and apart from a few, most who came on were presenters form other programmes promoting programmes that they were doing on the same channels Eamonn Holmes talking about his Lottery programme or Vernon Kay and his wife Tess Daley talking about another one of these shows where they bring in celebs to do something(this time it was singing)

Some presenters are very good and I'm not saying that it is always easy. It is a skill and some people come into it as an alternative career move if work is scarce. Pete Murray was actor but had most success as a dj and television presenter. But how many of those presenting now can move into other areas?

It probably always has been a case of promotion on chat shows but at least there was trade off Parkinson, Russell Harty and others in the 70's and 80's did at least get a decent interview out of their guests in return. And having seen recently some programmes featuring clips of those who appeared on their shows it appears to confirm that view. Harty managed to get as many or some different guests to Parkinson but certain programmes were never carried on the ITV station seving this area. London Weekend carried some shows of Johnny Carson as seen in the States and Harty but they never aired here.

Even TISWAS which is always mentioned as a popular children's programme in ITV's history was never shown here.

Now more often than not any international figure will usually try and give as short an interview as possible.

And look at the line-up Parkinson offered for his programme yesterday evening Helen Mirren(well, I guess she is an actor of note)but again she's a new film playing The Queen so its a trade off but the other main guests were Trinny Woodhall And Susannah Constantine. Who?

Exactly, two people who present a programme telling members of the public what they are wearing is wrong and choosing what they say is correct for them and yet I often think that they need help to choose what they wear themselves.

And why have them on the programme? Because they have moved from the BBC to commercial television and they have a new programme starting very soon on the same channel.

Using Noel Edmonds as an example, he is a capable broadcaster and did his best work on radio(probably)but he can at least put across a programme in an acceptable and professional way but even he would not class himself I am sure as a celebrity and its the newspapers that build him up in that way.

We've just had Celebrity Master Chef...what celebs? Richard Arnold and Hardeep Kholi amongst those chosen to take part.

In days gone by if someone like Sammy Davis Jr came over and appeared in a television special it was something worth staying in for. Programmes like Sunday Night At The London Palladium always managed to bring people to the UK that you probably would rarely see on television or in a theatre unless you went to specially to London.

Even the Royal Variety show used to be something I remember being a highlight of the year but now I rarely watch it or keep channel surfing.

And I have yet to talk of Big Brother(have you ever really seen anyone that you like or would want as a friend)or How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?

For those old enough to remember real celebrities I think that we can say that we have witnessed the demise of the term, for those around today the term has been redefined.

Since writing the above I have heard Matthew Kelly interviewed and perhaps what he said he makes things clearer...he suggests that we confuse celebrity with fame and they are two seperate things. But is it our problem or is it again created my the pr machine and they are getting it wrong?