As you no doubt will recall, one of this century’s greatest TV moments occurred during actress Amanda Redman’s appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? back in 2013.
It came when Amanda knocked on her long-lost distant cousin Karen’s door and was as stunned as the rest of us were to discover Karen looked EXACTLY like her.
I’m fairly sure someone at Channel 4 remembers. It would certainly explain Fame In The Family, a cheap and cheerful teatime show which, if I’m being honest, only mildly troubled my radar on Monday as Craig Revel Horwood held court with tales of his family’s high foreheads, twisted noses and wonky fingers.
By Tuesday though? I was completely hooked. That’s when four random strangers met Shaun Ryder for lunch to find out whether any of them were related to the Happy Mondays’ former chief party animal.
On appearance alone, three of the four could easily have been Shaun’s children.
I’m sure that thought must have crossed Shaun’s mind as well, especially given his wild escapades in the 1990s, when his life was more MDMA than DNA.
This was no CSA sting operation though. It was simply five people armed with genealogical profiles, playing a friendly game of Match The Family Tree.
Presumably, following its Jeremy Kyle expose at the weekend, Channel 4 was keen to show the fun side of DNA tests.
And it is a lot of fun, particularly if you’d forgotten what it’s like to watch celebrities chatting to ordinary folk instead of their fellow showbiz bores.
I’m also enjoying the tenuous clues and red herrings, which would have given the riddle writers on Ted Rogers’ 3-2-1 a run for their money.
Just how daft are these clues?
Put it this way, when Kerry Katona is guest of honour this afternoon I’ll be gutted if none of the contestants say, “My nan once bought some prawn rings from Iceland.”
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