[James]

From TV and Satellite Week magazine

The Pilot Show
E4 Monday

Sick of so-called personalities in programmes such as I'm a Celebrity..., Drop the Celebrity and Celebrity Fit Club? Well, E4's new comedy series The Pilot Show may be the reality check you've been waiting for.

The six-part series exposes just how low Z-listers will go for publicity by persuading an unsuspecting handful to appear in spoof TV projects.

The desperados get their come- uppance at the hands of actors (including My New Best Friend's Marc Wootton) who appear as the producers and guests for the bogus shows. Hidden cameras capture David Brent- type TV execs pitching ridiculous proposals to rent-a-celebs such as Neil Hamilton, Big Brother 2's Narinder and ex-EastEnder Dean Gaffney to see if they take the bait.

Disappointingly, some ideas never make it to film but we do savour the delights of Out of the Closet featuring Big Brother 3's Alex Sibley hiding in a loo waiting to surprise a fan, and Celebrity Advice Bureau with Toyah Willcox counselling a man who freezes his poo.

Non-celebs chasing their 15 minutes of fame also get in on the action. There is cringe-making audition footage of wannabe contestants competing to go to the moon with easyJet's Stelios and footballer Paul Ince in Who Wants to Be a Spaceman? And we meet a few of the 15,000 guys who jumped at the chance to join 40 strippers on the fictional Lapdance Island (left).

Overall, the spoofs are a bit hit or miss, sometimes hilarious, other times silly, and we don't always get to see the reaction when the wind-up is revealed. Who knows, perhaps some of the unwitting victims are still waiting to hear whether their series has been picked up? But in a world where Celebrity Detox Camp can make it on to TV, some of these ideas are frighteningly plausible.