Celebrity MasterChef, BBC1 - TV review: Reheating of stale personalities is back

The first batch of Celebrity MasterChef contestants (BBC)

I'm genuinely intrigued to watch tonight's concluding episode to see how they get on – far more interested than I am to see who wins this year's Celebrity MasterChef (BBC1).

This version always strikes me as the least satisfactory of all the MasterChef competitions, of which I am an avid fan.

There's none of the zest of fresh personalities, just the reheating of stale ones, while the contestants don't appear to have any ambition other than to reintroduce themselves to a public that long ago grew bored of them.

And last night's opening episode didn't disappoint, as reality show veterans Todd Carty, astrologer Russell Grant and clothes-horse Jodie Kidd joined fashion journalist Susannah Constantine and actress Sophie Thompson.

Constantine was presumably happy to elbow her Charles Saatchi-squired mate Trinny out of the media spotlight, but also served up a sad insight after John Torode and Gregg Wallace admired her duck dish, confessing that, "I don't think I've ever been praised so highly in my life before." That's an expensive education for you.

My review tape didn't reveal who was booted out, but from the way (like a bored waiter in a greasy-spoon café) he slapped his plate of gammon and chips down on the judges' table, I'm guessing we shall be seeing no more of Todd Carty.