Star Stories

There is obviously a market for Kevin Bishop's distinctive brand of comedy, but it is difficult to know what it is. Using the broadest of broad-brush impressions, it purports to tell the story of how Elton John became the patron saint of celebrities. The characters pilloried include Diana, Princess of Wales, Freddie Mercury, Robert Downey Jr, Liz Hurley and so forth accompanied by a crass commentary that mocks Elton John's baldness and bad temper.

At best, it could be argued that Star Stories attacks celebrity culture with a Punch and Judy exuberance, but many viewers will find it crude and aggressively unfunny.

The excellent Star Stories is back, with a hilariously un-life-like Sir Elton John (played by Kevin Bishop) as the first celebrity target of this third series.

The show gives us a hugely funny and almost entirely inaccurate account of Elton's early years in the spotlight, ultimately bringing us bang up-to-date with his role as the Patron Saint of Celebrities.

Having already shown us how singer Gary Barlow was taken under the wing of Nigel Martin-Smith and how Tom Cruise was introduced to Scientology after being hit over the head with a shovel by John Travolta.

It's now the turn of Sir Elton John and partner David Furnish to be given the Star Stories treatment by Kevin Bishop and Steve Edge in the third series of the very funny comedy parodying the lives and loves of big-time celebrities and Hollywood heavyweights.

There are plenty of funny wigs and silly voices to keep us suitably entertained as Elton's life and times are revealed, beginning in the Seventies, which he spent mostly in a blizzard of cocaine, to why it's bad to be bald and the reason it took so long for him to climb out of the closet.

Kevin Bishop was a hero in the last series of the spoof show, where he poked fun at Simon Cowell and Robbie Williams - and now he's back for more mocking. He kicks off this third series with Sir Elton John, the patron saint of celebrities, as his target. It's a bit hit and miss but it's great to see Bishop and Co back on the box.

The so-so comedy series starring Kevin Bishop returns for a third outing, lampooning the lives of Heather Mills and Peter and Jordan (the phrase 'shooting fish in a barrel' does come to mind).