Phillip Schofield’s TV comeback has been slated as “horrific”.
The presenter has returned in Channel 5’s Cast Away over a year after his tumble from grace, which saw him leaving This Morning and admitting to having what he described as an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a much younger male colleague at ITV. The new show sees Schofe stranded alone on a desert island.
The three-part series shows him have to find his own food and water as he films himself getting down to basics and telling his side of the story. “I know what I did was unwise – but is it enough to absolutely destroy someone?” he asks.
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However, many viewers are furious that he’s been given a platform after the affair scandal. The verdict in an opinion piece in the Mirror was that the whole thing “stinks”, with writer Darren Lewis saying that the most “damaging” message from the show is that “the big names” who have been exposed for wrongdoing “are too powerful to keep down”.
(Image: PA)
He said Phillip’s “horrific” return comes after “what would be seen in most workplaces as a serious HR violation and an abuse of power”. Lewis fumed that Schofield was able to tell his story without an interviewer to ask him any “tricky questions”.
He complained: “TV execs can see a disgraced star as an opportunity for entertainment, and give them a platform, whereas most people would be given a punishment. The benefit of a congested news cycle to inflict a collective short-term memory loss on the British public.
(Image: PA)
“And a rubbernecking, jungle-type format, just like the one he and his people will know the viewers love. It is a confessional that has turned a serious issue into a game show. And it stinks.”
He claimed the next star to make a comeback would be disgraced former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards, who has been handed a six-month jail sentence suspended for two years over charges of making indecent images of children. He added: “We need to make our minds up. Either we want to smash the cult of celebrity that has, in part, given rise to the likes of Huw Edwards, Stuart Hall, Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and so many others, or we don’t.”
(Image: PA)
The first episode aired on Monday (30 September) and saw the star, 62, revealing that he was so low that he considered suicide amid the scandal, saying “it got as dark as it is possible to get”. However, he said he was pulled back from the “edge” after his elder daughter Molly reminded him of what it would do to his family.
Lewis said Schofield was blaming “everyone but himself” for the affair and that he should be looking at himself rather than ‘lashing out’ at his former TV pals. The former ITV star has admitted there was “no question I did a bad thing” and apologised to the colleague he had an affair with.
On the programme, Phillip talked about how coming out as gay in 2020 had actually caused more “anguish” in his life. He said: “I know that coming out for so many people is liberating, and it’s freedom on a plate, absolutely be yourself, live your life to the absolute full. That’s the saying, just live your best life.
“But for me, doing it later in life, at the moment it has just given me more anguish than joy. I’m fully aware of the damage that it leaves.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
