One house, ten contestants, thirty cameras, forty microphones, one murder...and no evidence.

Dead Famous is a killer read from Ben Elton - Reality TV as you've never seen it before.

Ben Elton used to be my favourite comedian, I've even been lucky enough to see him live a few times too. However, over the last few years I've found him increasingly un-funny...and then he comes up with this. I can't help it, I'm a reality TV (Ok, Big Brother) junkie and so the idea of a murder in the Big Brother house is a really amusing one. Ok, so I didn't hate Jade that much...I'm not thinking of anyone in particular here, but in general...I don't want to see any real BB people dead...even Jonny! I'm thinking that this book might be just the thing to reintroduce me to Ben; and let me adore him all over again...I'm hoping!

August 17th 2002
The End

I think it's pretty safe to say that Benji and I have renewed our acquaintance successfully. I had big plans today that I would answer all my email, work on my websites and generally be a productive member of the online world...then yesterday I received a shipment of books from the lovely people at Amazon in exchange for a sizable sum of b'day money. As Big Brother had only just concluded, I thought it prudent to read this right away whilst I was still in a BB mood. I picked up the book this morning, and now twelve hours later I reached the final page with a deeply satisfied sigh.

I couldn't stop once I'd started. Not only was it a intriguing and dramatic whodunit, but it managed to satirize Big Brother with a biting, and often cruel, wit. It also made me realize that I was not the only person on the planet who'd paid an unhealthy attention to the show. Dear Ben had obviously been hooked, and rightly so...this book reminded me of all the best (and worse) moments of the first two seasons of BB, and made me wonder if the powers that be at Endemol had read this before they cast the third season.

The cast of Dead Famous were a beautiful amalgam of the characters we'd come to love (*coughs*) along with a couple of stereotypes that were irresistible.

David - actor, poseur, intellectual snob...porn star *g* and scarily reminiscent of this year's Alex.

Jazz - trainee chef, lad, all round kinda nice bloke: Darren clone, with just a hint of Lee and Craig thrown in for good measure.

Kelly - sales consultant (read shop assistant), pretty ladette, bonk-fodder: Mel, Kate...you need more?

Sally - female bouncer, lesbian, neurotic: most like Penny of the UK'ers, with just a hint of Adele thrown in for good measure.

Garry - van driver, git, letch...lad. He even gets the Bubble 'I cleaned up because of my kid' scene; no question of the inspiration here!

Moon - circus trapeze artiste, lap dancer, loud, alternative. A cross between Nichola and Amma.

Hamish - junior doctor. Mr. game plan, sinker-into-the-background so as not to be nominated. A tad of a non entity, but Paul, Tom, Andy and Spencer would probably hate to be compared to him...which is a shame, because I am doing.

Woggle - anarchist, tunneler, and hygiene no-go area! I don't really think the UK has had a Woggle yet, unfortunately, though there's a touch of the Spencer's about him, with maybe a little Sandy thrown in for good measure.

Layla - fashion designer (read shop assistant), hippie new-ager and poseur! Sada, Sada, Sada!!! Ok, I concede a little Penny and Caggy in the mix.

Dervla - trauma therapist. Screw the comparisons, she's Anna...her last name's even Nolan, and she gets a wimple joke too!

I loved that all the characters were recognizable...even to the point of taking the piss totally, but that's a lot of the fun of this book. Big Brother is a farce, why not throw Miss Marple in for good measure? It bloody works!

The story (which I have no intention of giving away here, read the damn thing, it's great fun!) is told in snippets of time. Told from the perspective of the investigating officers and then in retrospect from the point of view of the 'inmates'. So what you end up with is a timeline of crime (whee, I rhymed). The book starts out after the murder, but it isn't until about halfway through that you find out who the hapless house mate is (and no, I'm not telling). From then on it's reconstruction and as it happens narrative.

The idea is pure genius. And scarily the attitudes represented would probably be accurate should such a crime be perpetrated 'live on national TV!'. That's kinda the point of satire though, right?

I'd begun to think that Ben Elton had lost his eye for observational comedy, lured instead to the darkside of Andrew Lloyd Webber and football musicals...but he still has it in him! Yay! Big up to da man! He still knows how to pull off a really wry and cynical story. I have one (and only one) minor niggle. I'm really getting tired of Ben recycling material that he's been using for almost as long as I've been a fan. For example, the empty toilet roll holder vs paper-draper gag lost it's edge after he used it in his Man From Auntie series...ditto the lipstick emulating vaginas material. This was a really new and novel concept, that he couldn't resist thrusting in just a little old stuff to remind you that it's Benji.

I really hope that this book means that Ben Elton still has some of that brilliance I used to love in him, and wait now with anticipation to see what he comes up with next.