For British millennials who grew up infatuated with West End musicals, there has rarely been a better run of TV in our lifetimes than the BBC’s programming between 2006 and 2010. Over this period, the broadcaster proved its true public service credentials by making How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do, I’d Do Anything and Over the Rainbow, four reality competition shows that sought unknown stars for Andrew Lloyd Webber productions.
Our dads hated them. Meanwhile, those of us who were given to gestures such as quitting a drama group we had attended for years after being passed over for the titular part in a production of Thoroughly Modern Millie (I maintain that I deserved it) loved them. And last weekend, we emerged victorious: after years of clamour from fans on social media, ITV brought the format back in the shape of its new Sunday night show Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream.
In an era of revivals, from ITV’s own go at Big Brother to the BBC’s upcoming Survivor redux, this one is no surprise. Social media activity is one way for TV commissioners to assess demand for particular kinds of programmes, and so it must have been noticed that every few months for the last two years or so, a tweet reminiscing about the various Andrew Lloyd Webber series would go viral to the tune of thousands of likes and responses (it probably helped that I’d Do Anything, the 2008 BBC show that auditioned women to play Nancy in the 2009 West End production of Oliver!, was also 2022 Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley’s introduction to many viewers). In our current nostalgia-obsessed climate, therefore, a revival was inevitable.
And though the new show is, admittedly, a too-glossy imitation of the format’s earlier iterations, I Have a Dream is an interesting departure from ITV’s previous reality programming. It feels like a further commitment by the channel to nurture a gentler type of reality TV.
Presented by Zoe Ball, and judged by Alan Carr, Jessie Ware, Glee’s Amber Riley and West End and Broadway actor Samantha Barks (who came third on I’d Do Anything), I Have a Dream offers its winners, who will be chosen from 14 finalists, the roles of Sophie and Sky in Mamma Mia! at London’s Novello theatre. The process sees the contestants swept away to Corfu – imitating the Greek island setting of the musical – to undertake masterclasses from the pros involved with the stage show and the Mamma Mia! films, before performing weekly, with two ingenues eliminated by the judges each episode.
In vibe, therefore, I Have a Dream is miles away from the type of talent show we might typically associate with ITV. The X Factor in its heyday, for example, was a headline-generating, tabloid-courting behemoth, whose live auditions were probably the closest thing modern-day Britain had to gladiatorial contests, with their baying crowds and a judging panel centred on emperor-like Simon Cowell, his pollice verso the fulcrum on which contestants’ fates would turn. That is, until the live shows saw them put at the full mercy of the public, rather as if Jesus and Barabbas were doing “disco week”.
By contrast, I Have a Dream removes the public vote element entirely and – like many of the most successful reality competition shows of our time, from MasterChef to RuPaul’s Drag Race – leaves it to the judges to decide who stays and who goes. As such, the show measures up as more “Bake Off for people who identified with Rachel Berry from Glee at a concerningly young age” on the reality TV scale than it does “human version of bear-baiting”.
This is emblematic of the last few years for ITV, which seems to want to emulate the BBC in terms of its reality television offering. The broadcaster has recently attempted to clean up its treatment of contestants. The changes it has made to Love Island, say, are well documented (limits on alcohol consumption, all participants are briefed on appropriate behaviour before they enter, and a post-show therapy and financial advice package is available to everyone who takes part). The Big Brother revamp feels like another exercise for the channel in proving itself, going heavier on the silliness where its Channel 4 predecessor embraced conflict and debauchery. (I also suspect that it won’t be long now before Britain’s Got Talent departs – while its image is better than The X Factor’s, it’s still characterised by the same screamingly bright lights and emotional manipulation as Cowell’s other show).
This new approach is a good thing, though I Have a Dream, which lacks the charm of its BBC forebears, indicates that ITV is perhaps being too careful. Much of the humanity that made shows like The X Factor so undeniably compelling has been lost in favour of Instagram-style slickness. Ultimately, while some programmes already achieve a midpoint between the two (The Traitors feels like a good example), I Have a Dream is symbolic of reality TV’s next great challenge as a genre in the 2020s: balancing watchability with proper care, and generating high stakes without exploitation.
Lauren O’Neill is a culture writer
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