Over 28 series, the panel show’s anarchic spirit gave way to punching down and diminishing returns
It’s 2007. Preston from the Ordinary Boys is angry with Simon Amstell for reading out excerpts from his then-wife and fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestant Chantelle Houghton’s autobiography. So downright livid, in fact, that he marches out of the studio. “Come on Preston, we’re having fun,” Amstell yelps, barely concealing his delight, before team captain Bill Bailey goes into the audience and grabs a man called Ed to fill the now empty seat.
It was a moment that has gone down in TV folklore. But it also signalled the beginning of the end for the music-themed panel show, setting in place a chain of events that led to its drawn-out, terminal decline.