Heat magazine (yeah, yeah) reports this week that the centrepiece for next year’s Comic Relief will be, oh God, Fame Academy again. It’s quite remarkable given that, by the time it comes around, it’ll have been four years since the last proper series of the show, but seemingly such is the dearth of ideas for Comic Relief, it’s being allowed to live on purely in its celebrity version forever. Indeed I’m not sure how the BBC are happy with this flop continuing – what next, Celebrity Eldorado?

Inevitably Heat are already banging on about the excitement of seeing Patrick Kielty and Richard Park clashing again, but surely that was the one thing everyone hated about the original series? It wasn’t good-natured joshing but absolute hatred between the pair, culminating, of course, in Park’s one-handed salute. Presumably this is considered exciting telly, but as far as I’m concerned it’s simply excrutiatingly embarrassing to watch.

Of course, it was all Kielty’s fault, as Park always seemed rather perceptive. Perhaps his finest hour was when he said that suggesting someone was “better than Madonna”, as Carrie Grant did, was “dangerous rubbish”, which is fair comment and perfectly constructive criticism. In amongst the handbags, there was the germ of a good show here, though the second series lost all that was distinctive or indeed worthwhile about the whole thing.

Still, if it can keep on coming back, there’s hope for a second single from Ainslie yet.