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Chart Throb

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Chart Throb

By: Ben Elton
Narrated by: Glen McCready
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Summary

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Chart Throb.
The ultimate pop quest.

Ninety five thousand hopefuls. Three judges. Just one winner.
And that's Calvin Simms, the genius behind the show.

Calvin always wins because Calvin writes the rules. But this year, as he sits smugly in judgement upon the mingers, clingers and blingers whom he has pre-selected in his carefully scripted 'search' for a star, he has no idea that the rules are changing. The 'real' is about to be put back into 'reality' television and Calvin and his fellow judges (the nation's favourite mum and the other bloke) are about to become ex-factors themselves.

Ben Elton, author of Popcorn and Dead Famous returns to blistering comic satire with a savagely hilarious deconstruction of the world of modern television talent shows.

Chart Throb. One winner. A whole bunch of losers.


© Ben Elton 2006 (P) Penguin Audio 2009

Dark Humour Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Time Travel Comedy Funny Witty
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This is hilarious. Ben Elton is a generous and this is superbly read by Glen McCready

Hilarious

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pretty good book, glad I listened to it, felt a bit too much like an expose, or behind the scenes look on pop idol/x-factor type crap at times! but done very humorously so yeah 4 out of 5. Read excellently too.

Decent expose/comedy of talent show crap shows

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Great story and performance BUT several jarring production errors that should have been noticed. Especially the ‘end of CD 10’ at the end of a chapter.

Fabulous but flawed

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This started off slow then became interesting and fun but I had to give it up by chapter 7 as it just became suddenly boring to me.

Good luck

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I absolutely loved this book. It fit my own narrative about reality talent shows perfectly. Cynical, scathing, outrageous, funny, Ben Elton is a masterful writer. If someone had to write down what was in my head about this TV format...well, Ben Elton has already done it

Fits My Own Narrative of Reality Shows Perfectly

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