WITH a fridge full of booze, a scattering of F-bombs and lashings of sexual innuendos, the TV phenomenon that is Holly Willoughby has been brought back to life – just not quite as we know it.
The abdicated queen of This Morning is stepping back into the limelight with new YouTube show Together, and she’s doing it with a little help from her famous friends.
Episode one, which dropped today, features close chum Stanley Tucci, while upcoming instalments will see Holly joined by pop star pals Nicole Appleton and Emma Bunton, as well as comics Katherine Ryan and Joanne McNally.
But with the line-up of celebrities, not to mention sections on cookery, fashion, beauty and real-life stories, it all looks and feels oddly familiar.
Understandably keen to distance her new project from the ITV daytime programme that catapulted Holly to fame, producers have tried to shoehorn Together into the style of a vodcast through her own, dedicated YouTube channel.
There’s lots of shaky camera shots, flashes from behind the scenes and a more “unstructured” style of delivery from 45-year-old Holly — who is also now bravely showing that she needs to wear glasses.
It’s these authentic, raw touches that are required of a show that’s going to be dispersed to Millennial and Gen Z viewers across various social media.
The aim, apparently, is to cater for those joining the on- going exodus from traditional telly to online offerings — and serve up something to appeal to teens and twenty- somethings who would not even know how to turn on a TV set.
But after viewing the first episode, there’s no doubt it risks falling between two stools.
For starters, the 50-minute show feels way too long, when most youngsters now consume everything in a seconds-long bite.
And while lots of other vodcasts and podcasts are hugely popular with people of all ages, they tend to be niche. But this is general lifestyle. It’s well produced, cleverly conceived lifestyle, yet life-style nonetheless.
And it is not the sort of constructed concept that washes with all the TikTok-loving teenagers.
For example, the backdrop to Together looks as if it is inside Holly’s own home. But it’s nothing of the sort. It’s just a fake open-plan lounge and kitchen built inside a studio.
Now, where have we seen that before?
But that isn’t the only similarity between This Morning and the vodcast.
In an echo of Holly’s time on This Morning with Gino D’Acampo, episode one featured his fellow foodie Stanley Tucci cracking innuendos over the kitchen counter with Ms Willoughby.
After a beer and wine, The Devil Wears Prada actor Stanley kicked off a cookery session by handing Holly a curiously coloured courgette, which in turn prompted her to remark: “I’ve never seen one like this before.”
To which he quickly replied: “That’s not what I’d heard.”
The double entendres continued as Holly brought up tea-drinking, only for Stanley to describe it as “a very British thing we like to do first thing in the morning”.
He added: “Well, I’m sure that everyone’s different — but I know what I like.”
There’s more smut on the way, too, with an upcoming episode featuring Holly making sausages while remarking how she hopes the footage doesn’t end up appearing on OnlyFans. So far, so familiar.
One difference is that, unlike the old show, they are not afraid to name-drop, by a variety of means, in every way possible. Aside from a jarring advert during episode one for its sponsor, healthy-living firm Voy, there are multiple Smeg electrical goods scattered across the set.
Care is taken to name the posh knives used and display the brand of courgettes which, of course, you can buy only at Waitrose and Ocado, for almost £4 a box.
Holly is also at pains to showcase Stanley Tucci pans she was using — £799 for an 11-piece set at Fortnum & Mason.
Despite trying to convince us she is still Holly from the Block, it is clear she now inhabits a very different world to 17 years ago when she first charmed us on This Morning, alongside then co-host Phillip Schofield.
On Together, she insists her idea of entertainment is “eating a kebab while listening to Katy Perry”, and Holly makes flavoured vodka by putting Werther’s Originals, or Skittles, into a bottle of the aforementioned spirit before “brewing it” in the dishwasher.
The racks of wine and beer in the fridge, and occasional expletive, also suggest she is still just an ordinary gal up for a good time.
But in the next breath she drops into conversation that she’s met up with Stanley on numerous occasions previously. “We’ve got to eat something, we can’t just drink all day,” she tells Mr Tucci, “although it’s been done in the past.”
That’s Stanley, who is married to TV producer Felicity Blunt, sister of film star Emily Blunt, who’s married to movie actor John Krasinski.
Episode one also features an appearance by Holly’s hubby Dan Baldwin, boss of production firm Hungry Bear Media, which is making the new show in between creating a string of other money-spinning programmes for almost every channel going.
Dan even starts chatting to Holly and Stanley, joining in with the double entendres and asking what type of pasta is best with bolognese.
It is meant to feel cosy but ends up feeling cliquey.
Which is a shame, because the beauty of Holly 1.0 was that she felt relatable. Not quite like one of us, but someone we might just aspire to.
She would fluff her lines and collapse in a fit of giggles at the drop of a hat.
Watching Together, it is clear she still has that girl-next-door charm. But these days, Holly 2.0 ain’t living next door to any of us plebs.
