Showbiz: “So many horrible people”

Judi Dentures casts her views over recent showbiz and telly stories…

Headliners lose their slot

A Casualty of drama

Michael Starke is heading to the A&E department of Holby City Hospital, as he appears in a guest role in the longest running medical drama on the telly, Casualty (BBC One).

Viewers will know Starke probably for his role as Thomas ‘Sinbad’ Sweeney in Brookside (Channel 4) as well as other roles in Coronation Street (ITV) and The Royal (YTV). Guest spots have included in BBC One daytime saga Doctors, Casualty spin-off Holby City and Channel 4’s soap Hollyoaks.

It isn’t the first time Starke has featured in the west of England set medical serial, previously Michael has appeared as a guest in four episodes over the years. It was confirmed on social media by his agent that Michael has already filmed his scenes at the BBC Studios in Cardiff.

Quickies

♦ Eamonn Holmes has spoken about ‘fake people’ entertainment industry, the face and arse of GB News noted that he has worked with “so many horrible people” he added “so many are just false, false, false.” Holmes has been on television screens for decades hosting shows such as UTV News, TV Weekly, Open Air, GMTV, This Morning and Sky News Sunrise. He didnt divulge on the Things We Like podcast whom he was talking about. But newspaper reports in the past have noted he had strained relations with GMTV co-stars Anthea Turner and Fiona Phillips.

♦ Mark Wright was ticked off by social media users for sharing an insensitive post about flying – on the day of the tragic Air India crash. Mark posted a snap of himself, wife Michelle Keegan and their baby Palma posing in front of a private plane, as he moaned about the leg room on standard jets. This is what happens when you make people stars for the sake of it.

♦ Are you like me, sick of seeing Z-list stars on ITV in some exotic location trying to get you to part with dosh as part of a ‘great, amazing, big money winning’ competition during ITV Daytime? What’s more, this is the channel of ‘sustainable’ programming. Apparently, planting a couple of weeping willows in the CEO’s back garden offsets these flights of fancy or something like that. But it isn’t the environmental awareness that has now caught up with the daytime competition locations – cost cutting has.

According to The Mirror ITV will, reportedly, no longer be shelling out for presenters such as Andi Peters and Jeff Brazier to sun themselves on sun-kissed beaches while working for the broadcaster in its latest cost-cutting exercise. Competitions run during Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women.

♦ Honours from the King. Yes, birthday honours have been bestowed, and after years of wanting one David Beckham has finally been able to make Victoria a real lady, a first time for everything as they say. There was a joke online which is probably too rude to post here but it went along the lines of Beckham had had his head up King Charles’ arse so often he probably found the cancer. Yes, we can’t do that one.

Others getting gongs include Elaine Paige who is no longer to be called Miss Paige, its dame thank you very much. Also, actor Gary Oldman has been knighted, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have been given MBE’s for autocue reading and musician and singer Roger Daltrey becomes a sir.

More details on the GMB/ITN merge

ITV recently announced that from January 2026, Good Morning Britain will be produced by ITV News at ITN. You may recall in the past ATV Today questioned why a programme outside of ‘ITV News’ was caked in ‘ITV News’ branding, which no one wanted to answer. ITN seemed rather embarrassed by the question, probably embarrassed by the GMB content it was part of. Well now thanks to cost-cutting the two separate news offerings of GMB and ITV News are brining two worlds together. Colin Fry would be delighted.

ITN have revealed a little more details on the 2026 changes. They note that ITV has confirmed, as part of the changes, the renewal of the agreement between ITV and ITN, for the latter to produce national, international, London and digital news for ITV for the next five years, with options to extend for a further five years. ITN was originally formed 70 years ago as the ITV news provider, owned by the independent television companies.

“From early next year, GMB will be produced by a dedicated team which will be employed at ITN, based largely out of its central London HQ on Gray’s Inn Road. The programme will also be extended to run from 6am to 10am daily for 22 weeks of the year and 6am to 9:30am for 30 weeks of the year, continuing to be available on ITVX after broadcast.” – ITN

The move is part of a wider review by ITV of its daytime scheduling and production to find cost savings and efficiencies. ITN’s unique shared infrastructure model enables this consolidation of ITV’s news operations.

As part of these changes, some of those currently working on GMB will be at risk of redundancy, as well as a small number of current ITN roles within ITV News. Those affected in this way will have the opportunity to apply for roles in the new structure.

“These developments are a real vote of confidence in ITV News and our expert support teams at ITN, recognising our outstanding creativity, commitment, and professionalism. I am really proud that another flagship programme is about to join the organisation in an arrangement I know will bring mutual benefits and strengthen ITN.” – Rachel Corp, ITN’s CEO

Alongside the GMB editorial team moving over, all aspects of the production will also come from Gray’s Inn Road.  This includes the creation of a new newsroom and production facilities, and ITV News’ main studio will be transformed to become the combined home of Good Morning Britain, national and international programming in ITV News and regional service ITV News London. In addition, ITN will build a new backstage area, including dressing rooms, wardrobe, make-up and a green room.

ITN’s Technology and Studios department will play a key role in delivering the new facilities and supporting the production, and as a result the team will be expanded.

Beeb North East and Cumbria Gaza

This week the BBC North East and Cumbria headquarters in Newcastle were attacked, with windows smashed and walls sprayed with graffiti saying, “Free Gaza”. The studios are near St James’ Park football stadium, and some may have assumed it was supposed to say ‘Free Gazza’ leaving Geordies wondering what he’d gone and done now.

However, the building, nicknamed ‘The Pink Palace’ due to its mid-1980s external colour scheme, had been attacked by activist group Palestine Action, the window smashing, paint spraying, organisation claimed. I’m not sure either Look North or BBC Radio Newcastle, which broadcast from the site, have ever said much on Gaza or Iseral to be fair.

The last time I tuned in to this ‘local radio’ delight they were talking about pulling rhubarb in some gardening phone in. Which is very apt for the Beeb. Northumbria Police has appealed for information following the attack on the building in the early hours of Tuesday, 10th June.

ITV Tyne Tees reported that a post shared on social media showed graffiti on the building which said: “LIARS” and “Free Gaza” in red paint.

Walliams and the Wave

David Walliams, where do we even start with this one. After the controversy with Britain’s Got Talent, where he took the piss out of two contestants ‘off air’ – that was then leaked years later to a newspaper which saw him apologise for being a c*nt then later seem less sorry as he decided to sue Fremantle but settled out of court for his ‘private conversation’ being made public. I mean yes, if you’re going to go round being a c*nt you don’t want it broadcast that you are one, especially when your image is one of, well I’m not sure? Comedian? We’ll go with that, even though it is a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, here we are two years later with another incident. Only this time it wasn’t a private conversation it was a full-on Nazi salute as part of a joke during the recording of comedy panel show Would I Lie to You? Is it arrogance or lack of self-awareness, or maybe both?

The Beeb issued a response to Walliams making the gesture as being “completely unacceptable”. Radio Times report he ‘made the gesture twice during a section of the show when another guest – Call the Midwife actress and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Helen George – was telling a story that she had hurt her wrist from ‘waving too much during the Strictly tour’.

To be honest the only thing I found offensive about the news was he was at his old faux-gay shtick that wasn’t funny fifteen years ago and still isn’t now.

Young stories to the stage

What It Feels Like To Talk To Lorraine

Tuesday on Lorraine, and telly’s least busy woman Lorraine Kelly amazingly turned up to her self-titled show where she was joined by Paris Lees, writer and creator of new BBC coming of age series ‘What It Feels Like for a Girl’. The series is an adaptation based on a memoir of Lees’ own experiences growing up.

Detailing the foray into screenwriting following the publication of the book, Paris said: “This was my story and I really wanted to rise to the challenge and do it justice and can I tell you Lorraine, it’s been so fun.”

As the conversation turned to the reviews the drama has received, Paris added: “We got the reviews I wanted, it’s not this perfectly polished cosy crime drama, people have said it’s fearless, it’s bold, it’s in your face and that’s what we wanted it to be.”

“I think the reason people have reacted to it and I’ve had so many kind messages over the past week is because we are living in such a fake world with social media, you don’t have to like this show, you don’t have to like the book but it’s a message from the heart.”

“It’s authentic, it’s my truth and I’m not afraid to hold a mirror up and look at the darkness within. I feel like we don’t often hear from those people, there are people who are ‘rent boys’, there are people who go to prison, there are people who don’t have a voice and it’s really easy to condemn those people and write them off and you could’ve done that with me at that age and people did. I was a delinquent but actually, I had value and we’ve all got value and I really wanted to explore why some people end up like that.”

As the conversation continued, Paris spoke of her lived experience.

“Trans people haven’t been able to tell their stories in this way before and I feel incredibly privileged to have been given the opportunity to have this eight part series for the BBC but it’s really not about that actually… It’s not propaganda, I am trans so obviously I have some things to say about what it is to be a trans person but my primary objective in writing this was to entertain people.”

There has been a hoo-har about ‘trans rights’ recently following a ruling that legally defines a woman. Let’s just get back to the good old days when we had four options: men, women, trans men and trans women. Does that not work?

Lorraine weekdays from 9am on ITV1, ITVX, STV & STV Player and in some instances Lorra might actually bother to present some of them

We’ve recently said farewell to actress Pik sen Lim who died at 80, it was also thank you and goodnight to singer and songwriter Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys who departed aged 82.

The views expressed are an opinion piece and are only of the author and not ATV Today. Penelope Teeth, Judi Dentures and Joanna Gumley are ATV’s exclusive showbiz drag queens with bite.