Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes

Eamonn Holmes

  • Northern Irish
  • Presenter and journalist

Press clippings Page 3

Eamonn Holmes swims against a tide of teasing

When it comes to impressions of Eamonn Holmes, the problem's alimentary, says Jenny McCartney.

Jenny McCartney, The Telegraph, 24th July 2010

Eamonn Holmes gets BBC jokes eating away at him banned

'Fierce hungry' Sky presenter wins public apology from craven Beeb.

Marina Hyde, The Guardian, 22nd July 2010

Eamonn Holmes says impression is just not funny

Eamonn Holmes calls lawyers over BBC weight jibes.

Dominic Herbert, The News Of The World, 18th July 2010

The All Star Impression Show was ITV1's big novelty entertainment show for Boxing Day, wherein celebrities did impressions of other celebrities - except for Joe Pasquale, who came on and was Joe Pasquale, in an oddly unconvincing manner.

For weeks before broadcast, ITV1 had promoted the show as if it were the magnificent glazed goose of its Christmas schedules, to be placed on our table to cries of "God bless you, good broadcasting sir!" In the event, The All Star Impression Show was essentially ITV1 bringing a roast cat to the dinner table, garnished with minced rat stuffing.

Eamonn Holmes as Elvis Presley kicked off proceedings. You need not ask which era Elvis he chose. This was not '68 Comeback Special; it was more 99 Flake Comeback Special. Indeed, in sunglasses and goitre, Holmes could have removed the cape and gone on to knock off both Roy Orbison and Carlos the Jackal, but sadly lacked the imaginative expanse to do so.

He was followed by what appeared to be Arsène Wenger doing a camp Jimmy Corkhill from Brookside - a frankly mind-blowing concept - but which perusal of the credits revealed to be a comedian called Stevie Riks doing Paul O'Grady. I hope that the confusion over this conveys some measure of how surreally awful the whole thing was, like a collection of your more lacklustre in-laws suddenly deciding to put on a revue, apparently written by their parents and occasionally studded with someone from Coronation Street.

Things reached their "WTF?" apogee with a sketch that involved Bobby Davro as Chris Tarrant, the wrinkles drawn on to his face with black felt-tip, and Les Dennis playing Gary Barlow as someone with no distinguishing physical or conversational features whatsoever, in a bath. Naked.

The skit revolved around Barlow trying to guess how Tarrant washed - "You gonna use your loofah?" - and peaked with Dennis rising, wholly naked, from the bath, genitals covered in a distressingly meagre slick of bath-foam. It may even have been Matey.

This, then, is why so many of us found ourselves at the bottom of the garden at 4am, sitting on a wet trampoline with a bad uncle. This, then, was Christmas.

Caitlin Moran, The Times, 2nd January 2010

This could possibly be the most deranged variety show you'll ever see, the only place on earth where you can watch Christopher Biggins pretending to be Boris Johnson, and Jerry Hall impersonating Katie Price. If that doesn't draw you in, how about Joe Pasquale as Lady Ga-Ga? Or Ulrika Jonsson as David Beckham? No? Surely Vanessa Feltz masquerading as James May is irresistible. As is Eamonn Holmes as Elvis Presley. And David Gest as Elton John. Les Dennis as Gary Barlow... The list goes on, and just gets odder. The All Star Impressions Show could be completely awful or it could be enjoyably barmy. It certainly has a very good pedigree, being co-produced by Steve Coogan's and Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's production companies. And it has a certain surreal gloss that could be quite winning. Harry Hill will make a guest appearance, though we don't know whether he will reprise the Morrissey impression that won him Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes all those years ago.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 26th December 2009

TV Review: The Justin Lee Collins Show

What kind of idiotic tagnut would give a green light to a programme like The Justin Lee Collins Show? To give me a show hosted entirely by a man who seems to have based his entire career on looking like Barkley from Sesame Street and mugging like Roland Rat is ludicrous enough. To then announce that the guests would be two people even more loathsome than the host... notably buttock-faced Stay Puft Marshmallow jock, Chris Moyles and squidgy faced talent void Eamonn Holmes is, quite frankly, taking a big steaming dump in the wound. It's beggars belief. It really is. Someone, somewhere, is making a living from such a wretched decision.

mofgimmers, TV Scoop, 1st May 2009

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