Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice

Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice is a British television comedy show co-created, co-written, directed, produced by and starring comedian Peter Kay. The two-hour show was broadcast in two parts on Channel 4 on 12 October 2008.

The title and general format of the film is a parody of talent search-based reality television shows. The title of the show is an amalgamation of other talent-search reality shows, as well as a stage show (representing the show-within-a-show mentioned below); in order - Britain's Got Talent, Pop Idol, The X Factor, celebrity variants of pre-existing shows, Jesus Christ Superstar (in reference to Andrew Lloyd Webber's BBC series of talent shows), Soapstar Superstar, Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice.

As well as being the title of the show, Britain's Got the Pop Factor is the title of the fictional series within the show, where Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice is the name of another fictional talent show, to which the winner of Britain's Got The Pop Factor gains automatic entry.

After the end credits, the show advertised its "sequel", due to show the next year: Celebrity Fiddler on the Roof In the Jungle, an amalgam of British reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

It was the first show Kay had produced on the channel for four years, and was described by Channel 4 as the 'comedy forefront of the autumn schedule, which [would] begin a year-long season of programmes'.^[1][2] The show was rerun in its entirety on 14 December 2008.

Due to the release of "I Know Him So Well", a duet by winner Geraldine McQueen and Susan Boyle for Red Nose Day 2011, the show was repeated on 26 March of that year, with the video for the song shown immediately afterwards.

Plot

The programme was shown in the style of a live final talent show hosted by Cat Deeley^[3] and judged by Nicki Chapman, Pete Waterman and Neil Fox (this being the original Pop Idol panel, minus Simon Cowell; Chapman and Waterman were also panellists for ITV's "Popstars" and Popstars: The Rivals respectively.)

Peter Kay appeared as solo artist Geraldine McQueen, a contestant. Jo Enright, Karl Lucas, David Hulston and Sian Foulkes performed as a band 2 Up 2 Down in which the two women were wheelchair users, and Marc Pickering played R Wayne: another solo artist. This mirrors the three categories The X Factor originally split its entrants into.^[2]

The two hour final exhibited various acts that did not make the final, and the three finalists' journeys on the show. It revealed their sob stories and the fact that sob stories were the driving force behind which contestants got through to the final. Geraldine McQueen had gone through gender reassignment surgery after being a male piano player on one of the Irish ferries and 2 Up 2 Down have had a multitude of bad experiences. R Wayne was originally eliminated at bootcamp for not having a good enough sob story but was brought back into the show after his grandmother (R Gran) died from a heart attack on hearing news of his elimination.

Later on in the show, a notable character from the first series of Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, Psychic Clinton Baptiste, revealed that R Gran was attending a pub quiz in heaven with Thora Hird and Heath Ledger.

The three finalists each performed a live medley (performed in a serious manner, with the insensitivity of the song selections providing the humour). At this point, R Wayne was eliminated and the final two acts then performed their own rendition of "The Winner's Song".

The winner of the show was Geraldine. She collapsed on stage during the last lines of her version of "The Winner's Song" from choking on a piece of glitter confetti. R Wayne, not noticing, ended up being the only person actually singing these last lines. After somebody asked for a doctor, "Dr." Neil Fox jumped on stage and attempted to revive her.

The following day Kay, in character as Geraldine, was a guest on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and revealed that Neil Fox revived her, and she was recovering in an unknown (to her) hospital. She also appeared on Danny Baker's afternoon radio show on BBC London 94.9 three days later where she was still in hospital recovering and she was hoping to get a visit from Pete Waterman. She was also interviewed on Wave 105's breakfast show the following Friday, where she revealed that she was staying at Guy Ritchie's flat.^[4]

A follow-up programme, along the lines of the "winner's story" documentaries often produced for real-life talent reality shows, was broadcast on Channel 4 on 19 December 2008. Titled Peter Kay's Britain's Got an Extra Pop Factor and Then Some 2 + 1, the programme was hosted by Ben Shephard who, like Cat Deeley, was formerly closely associated with this type of programme.

Music

R Wayne sang a medley of "Return to Innocence" by Enigma, "Love Train" by The O'Jays, "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson, "Y.M.C.A." by The Village People and "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma" by St Winifred's School Choir.

2 Up 2 Down sang a medley of "We Built This City" by Starship, "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child, "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton, "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler and "Hero" by Mariah Carey.

Geraldine sang a medley of "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen, the theme to Born Free (perhaps best known as Matt Monro's version), "Free Nelson Mandela" by The Special AKA, "Umbrella" by Rihanna, "C'est la Vie" by B*Witched and "Milkshake" by Kelis.

Both 2 Up 2 Down and Geraldine sang versions of "The Winner's Song", which was co-written by the show's creator Peter Kay and Take That frontman, Gary Barlow.

The music was produced and arranged by Mike Stevens, Take That's musical director.

Cast

Main cast

• Peter Kay as Geraldine McQueen
• Cat Deeley as herself
• Nicki Chapman as herself
• Neil Fox as himself
• Pete Waterman as himself
• Marc Pickering as R Wayne
• 2 Up 2 Down

Jo Enright as Jackie

Karl Lucas as Richard

Sian Foulkes as Wendy

David Hulston as Graham

• Conleth Hill as Geraldine's Mum
• Alex Lowe as Clinton Baptiste
• Judith Alexander as R Mam
• Gordon Isaccs as Bouncer 1
• Dean Feasby as Bouncer 2
• Voiceover Peter Dickson

Guest stars

The show featured cameo appearances from:

• Rick Astley singing on stage with 2 Up, 2 Down
• Lionel Blair as Dance Mentor
• Todd Carty as 'Jesus H Christ'
• The Cheeky Girls as Mentors
• Louis Emerick as 'Joseph'
• Rustie Lee as Neil Fox's assistant
• Sally Lindsay as 'Mary'
• Sir Paul McCartney as Mentor
• Andi Peters reporting from a CD pressing plant
• Ricky Wilson (of the Kaiser Chiefs)

Cast of auditionees

• Pearce Quigley as Dog Trainer
• Smug Roberts as Angry Husband
• Tim Whitnall as Auditionee with Eyepatch
• Gemma Louise Carter as Bruschetta
• Steve Royale as Baby Juggler
• Jordan Smith as boy who jumps on Cat Deeley

Viewing figures

On its initial broadcast, the first part of the programme attracted 6.25 million viewers on Channel 4 and 912,000 on Channel 4 +1, giving a total of 7.16 million viewers. The second part attracted 3.56 million viewers on Channel 4 and 454,000 on Channel 4 +1, giving a total of 4.01 million viewers.

The repeat showing of both parts combined on 14 December 2008 garnered 2.81 million viewers on Channel 4 and 389,000 on Channel 4 +1, giving a total of 3.20 million viewers.^[5][6]

Geraldine McQueen

Geraldine McQueen is the fictional singer-songwriter from Britain's Got The Pop Factor... played by Peter Kay as a parody of the generic talent show winner.

Backstory

She grew up as a male named Gerry King. As an adult, Gerry became a piano player on one of the Northern Irish ferries. Always believing that she was in the wrong body, Geraldine underwent a painful gender reassignment surgery in Bangkok, under the watchful eyes of Dr Fungmewow claiming, "he certainly knew his onions..." Her home life was poor though, as after her mother found a young Gerry cross-dressing, she stated that she didn't want anything to do with her son, saying "she is no son of mine!" However, during the final of Britain's Got The Pop Factor... Geraldine's mother battled with her terminal HIV and inner-dislike for her child and came to the studio on an IKEA flatbed trolley to support her. Geraldine's father died when she was younger. The character was killed off in a special Christmas radio broadcast on 96.2 The Revolution, in 2008.

Releases

The single "The Winner's Song" was written by Peter Kay and Gary Barlow and was released on iTunes and in stores on 13 October 2008. On 19 October 2008, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 2.^[7] The follow-up single "Once Upon a Christmas Song" was released on 15 December 2008 in stores and became available to download on 14 December. This was a charity single and all proceeds were donated to the NSPCC.^[8]

When her Christmas single, "Once Upon a Christmas Song" was released Geraldine made an appearance on GMTV to promote it, claiming it was a serious contender for the Christmas number 1 single.

Other appearances

After the release of "The Winner's Song", Geraldine made appearances on Take That Comes To Town. She was then seen performing it on The Royal Variety Performance (doing a medley which included "The Winner's Song" and "Once Upon a Christmas Song"), and The Paul O'Grady Show. After nearly 3 years away McQueen went on to Daybreak, Loose Women and The One Show to promote her new single with Susan Boyle. The Geraldine: The Winner's Story mockumentary was re-edited for the first episode of the compilation series Peter Kay's Comedy Shuffle in 2016.

Discography

Singles

References

External links

• Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice at channel4.com
• Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice at TV.com
• Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice at the Internet Movie Database
• Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice at British Comedy Guide