"Dead Famous" (2004) TV series 2004-2006

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Creator:

Bibi Lynch

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | unknown

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Mystery

Plot:

Gail Porter and Chris Fleming take a spirited road trip through the West Coast of America looking for the ghostly locations where the legends of stage and screen reside.

Cast

Gail Porter	...	Presenter (31 episodes, 2004-2006)
Chris Fleming	...	Psychic Investigator (31 episodes, 2004-2006)

Runtime:

45 min (18 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color | Black and White

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:12 (1 episode) | UK:15 (2 episodes) | UK:PG (1 episode) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Company:

Two Four Television Productions

Dead funny at times

Perky girl next door Gail Porter struggles to carry this show on her wee shoulders. Together with the least convincing medium I've ever seen (including Uri Gellar!) she investigates paranormal activity relating to dead celebrities.

Even Gail can't fully go along with the medium because he's so ridiculous. "Stop being weird" she says to him during one investigation and not without good reason. Everywhere he goes he wanders around like a tourist before screwing his face up and wobbling his mouth and making horse noises in a weird way. Then he has a revelation that is to say the least bleeding obvious or falls into a trance where he froths at the mouth and snarls out messages. If Gail should dare to ask him any details he turns incredibly defensive and pissy about the whole thing which is funny, though you can't help but feel a bit sorry for her stuck with that pantomime act.

The best moments are when he is allegedly deep in communication with spirits and there's an unexplained noise, he squeals and panics and any pretence that he's got any spooky powers vanishes. Funny stuff. I cheered every time it cut his lame possessions short.

It's still kind of interesting if you want a short history of famous Hollywood people who have crashed and burned in various was. There's Gail too, who could present a documentary on how doorknobs are made and would probably make it seem fairly interesting. I like ghost shows but I don't think there's really much material to work with, I've never heard any really good celebrity ghost stories beyond the ones spun by people hoping to play up the connection between their business or home and a celebrity.

It's not great but it's still worth a watch, if only to chuckle at that medium who makes Derek Acorah look convincing. They do visit some interesting places and some of the stars might be of interest to you as well.