Stacey Dooley: Comic Relief work wasn't 'sinister'

Stacey Dooley has written a new response to the Comic Relief "white saviours" row, saying her intentions were never "sinister".

Comic Relief to cut back on celebrity appeals

Comic Relief is to send fewer celebrities abroad after criticism that stars like Stacey Dooley were going to Africa as "white saviours".

Stacey Dooley is the celebrity guest on another edition of Lycett's intensely light-hearted take on consumer affairs. A car-rental company is the target of a hidden-camera investigation, while a gold-digging scammer receives the full weight of Lycett's "trolling-the-trolls" prankery.

Series we've lost count (it's 57, if you must ask) of the panel show begins with David Dimbleby in the host's chair. Joining Merton and Hislop, meanwhile, are the doc-maker, Stacey Dooley and the German comic Henning Wehn, who is sure to land some digs at his adopted country's omni-Brexit-shambles.

In The Luke McQueen Pilots, McQueen plays a comedian making a failed documentary about the so-called British vampire crisis. It is not exactly a spoof, though there is a laboured joke about doing something "like what Stacey Dooley or Reggie Yates would do". It is, in its better moments, a spoof of spoofs, though that may be an accidental by-product of inhaling the exhaust of those who have done that sort of thing with more precision (Chris Morris, Sacha Baron Cohen, Charlie Brooker/Philomena Cunk).

The bit where McQueen pours milk over his head is quite funny. The bit where he meets an online paedophile is less so. It's a pretty tough line of humour, the paedophilia gag, and it's not clear whether the individual in question is an actor or a real pervert. There's also a passing joke about Barry Chuckle, who died recently, and a mock protest in which McQueen pretends that Theresa May is a vampire.