Dead Famous (novel)
 | |
| Author | Ben Elton. |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tony Stone |
| Sprache | Englisch |
| Genre | Mystery |
| Publisher | Bantam Press |
Publication date | 2001 |
| Publication place | Vereinigtes Königreich |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 384 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-552-99945-8 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | Inconceivable |
| Followed by | High Society |
Dead Famous is a comedy/whodunit novel by Ben Elton in which ratings for a reality TV show, very similar to Big Brother, rocket when a housemate is murdered. Unlike a typical whodunit, Elton does not reveal the identity of the victim until around halfway into the book.
Plot introduction
The novel is about a murder that occurs on a reality television programme, House Arrest, and the efforts of three police officers to catch the anonymous killer by watching all the video recordings of the ten housemates while the remaining housemates unwillingly go on living on the reality television show. The novel jumps back and forth in time to show the events in the video recordings live. Later a note, put in a sealed envelope weeks previously, is found saying that the victim will be dead by the time the housemates read the note and that one of the three remaining housemates will be murdered. The police have to catch the killer before he or she strikes again.
It is set mainly in the police station and in the House Arrest house and its surrounding buildings in which the production staff work.
Characters in "Dead Famous"
The housemates:
- Jason "Jazz", a trainee chef and wannabe comedian
- Dervla Nolan, a quiet and mysterious Irish trauma therapist
- Garry "Gazzer", a stereotypical lager lout
- Kelly Simpson, a beautiful unintelligent shop assistant, the victim
- David Dalgleish, a vain actor and porn star
- Layla, a snobbish fashion designer and shop assistant
- Hamish, an uninteresting doctor
- Sally Copple, a bodybuilding lesbian bouncer
- William "Woggle" Wooster, an antisocial unhygienic anarchist
- Moon, an exhibitionistic circus performer and topless model
The television crew:
- Geraldine Hennessy, the producer of House Arrest
- Bob Fogarty, the senior series editor
- Pru, his assistant editor
- Larry Carlisle, a cameraman
- Chloe, the presenter
The police:
- Chief Inspector Stanley Spencer Coleridge, an old-fashioned but dedicated police officer
- Sergeant Hooper (forename unknown), a young modern police officer
- Constable Patricia (surname unknown), a closeted lesbian police officer
Allusions and references
Allusions to other works
Elton makes references in this novel to both Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth.
David, the actor, has the first four lines of Hamlet's soliloquy "To be, or not to be" tattoed around his ankle. This allows both Kelly and the police officers to identify him as a porn star who starred in a movie in which Kelly was an extra. This threatens his reputation, as he wishes to become a serious actor again.
Inspector Coleridge belongs to an amateur dramatics society that is starting rehearsals for a performance of Macbeth, one of Coleridge's favourite plays. He desperately wishes to play the lead, but the director wants someone younger to play the lead part. Coleridge's success in solving the murder wins him the part. The idea of Banquo's ghost is Coleridge's method of forcing a confession out of the murderer.
Allusions to actual history, geography and current science
The novel is dedicated to the contestants of the first Big Brother series in the UK, the second Big Brother series in the UK and the first Big Brother series in Australia. The book parodies the cult of celebrity brought on by simply being on television and says in the credits that "without [the Big Brother contestants] this novel would not have been written".
Publication history
- Great Britain, Bantam Press (a division of Random House), ISBN 0-552-99945-8, Pub date 01 September 2002, Hardback and Paperback