The Inheritance (Ch4)
Tragic that Liz Hurley is dead. But there’s one consolation for boyfriend Billy Ray Cyrus. As an actress, she’s so wooden he won’t need to have her cremated.
He can just use her for firewood.
The star of Channel 4’s godawful game show The Inheritance never actually appears on set. She is seen only on crackly old video footage, played back via VHS tapes as the 13 contestants gather round a vintage TV in her former stately home.
‘Hallo darlings,’ she begins, reading from the autocue with all the fluency of a short-sighted showgirl peering at an optician’s chart. ‘I have some bad news for you. Are you ready?’
La Hurley’s idea of ‘bad news’ is that she’s supposedly sending a message from beyond the grave. But the real cause for national mourning is this 12-part reality contest itself. The Inheritance, which continues tonight, is shockingly bad — clumsy, nonsensical, dull, confused, tasteless and pointless.
Robert Rinder plays the late Miss Hurley’s executor, carrying out her last wishes by setting inane tasks for the players. In the first, on Sunday night, they had to recover bottles of white wine from lobster pots in an ornamental lake, decant buckets of red wine from barrels in a cellar, and combine them to make Liz’s favourite blend of rosé.
If that’s what she drank, I’m not surprised she’s dead. Her liver probably crawled up her oesophagus and choked her in protest.
The second challenge involved herding sheep and pigs on the estate’s farm, catching chickens, and filling bags of manure. That’s what they should have called this show: Shovelling Shh… omething.
Players blame each other for their inevitable failures, then put themselves forward as ‘claimants’, with their rivals deciding who deserves a portion of the cash.
ed, ‘I work really hard and I don’t get financial gain. No one works in the NHS for the money. This is my opportunity to get rewarded.’ Pass the begging bowl, I think I’m going to throw up.
Rinder looks genuinely embarrassed to be involved. He probably took the part for the same reason Rob Brydon did BBC1’s Destination X and David Tennant stooped to host Genius Game on ITV. They all want to be Claudia Winkleman.
This is the most blatant attempt yet to copy The Traitors. Players form alliances and snipe about their rivals over breakfast, or huddle in wingback armchairs around a huge Gothic fireplace. The camera keeps cutting away to stuffed birds and hideous porcelain figurines, trying to give the impression of fabulous wealth.
But the ornaments are fakes and the prizes are hardly 24-carat, either. Rinder is careful never to say how large the total legacy could be, but so far, there’s been less than £20,000 up for grabs.
That’s an inheritance so measly, even Rachel Reeves couldn’t get excited about nabbing it.
