SINCE Laura Whitmore walked away from presenting Love Island three years ago, things have not quite gone to plan.
She was intent on carving out a new career as a specialist journalist for ITV, but I can reveal her series Laura Whitmore Investigates won’t return for a second season.
And it’s not because she doesn’t want to delve into serious issues any more, as she is already making a similar show for streaming service Crime+Investigation, which is due to drop this year.
A TV insider said: “It’s quite a change in fortunes for Laura who, just three years ago, was fronting several shows with ITV and had others in the pipeline with them.
“She took a gamble leaving Love Island to become a serious journalist, and it’s not clear if that was a success. Perhaps she will stage a spectacular comeback — but nothing has been announced, other than the Crime+Investigation show.”
From 2020 to 2022 Laura was a team captain on Celebrity Juice and was hosting Love Island for ITV2, but those gigs went.
Then in 2023 she landed documentary series Laura Whitmore Investigates and Laura Whitmore’s Breakfast Show for ITVX and ITV1.
They were given the chop.
Last year it was even confirmed the Prime Video show she narrated, Date My Mate, was being axed after just one series.
As its title suggests, the Crime+Investigation channel is dedicated to programmes about crime.
Laura’s six-part series will centre on teenagers who kill.
Announcing the show recently, she said she hoped Britain’s Killer Teens would look at what motivates adolescents to take such extreme measures.
She added that uncomfortable topics need discussing, “because whether we accept it or not, it’s happening.”
As things stand she could probably apply the same mantra to her own career.
MARTIN’S EYEFUL FOR MUM
MARTIN COMPSTON was left red-faced after forgetting to warn his mum about the five-minute sex scene in his new Prime Video thriller Fear.
The Line Of Duty actor took his parents along to the premiere of the series, which follows couple Martyn and Rebecca as they become embroiled with a neighbour from hell.
Martin Compston was left red-faced after forgetting to warn his mum about the five-minute sex scene in his new Prime Video thriller Fear[/caption]
The first episode sees the actor and on-screen wife Anjli Mohindra get frisky.
He told Chris Moyles on Radio X: “You’re sitting between your mum and dad, and you’re like, ‘Ah, this is amazing!’ and then you get the fear… I start walking down the stairs in a dressing gown.
“I forgot what was coming, and you’re having to turn around to your mum and go, ‘Please shut your eyes for the next five minutes’.
“And she’s like, ‘Why? Why?’ And I said, ‘Just shut your eyes. I can’t explain it’.”
FAMILIES Like Ours, the debut TV drama series from Oscar-nominated and Bafta-winning director Thomas Vinterberg, will be screened on BBC iPlayer and BBC Four.
The seven-parter is set in Denmark in a future where rising water levels cause chaos across the globe.
AMANDA & MINNIE TUB TIME
WHEN Amanda Holden revealed she shared a bath with somebody special last weekend, you’d think her husband got lucky.
But sadly for music exec Chris Hughes, it was the Britain’s Got Talent judge’s dog that had a soak with her.
Amanda Holden revealed she shared a bath with somebody special last weekend[/caption]
Amanda revealed on her Heart FM breakfast show that she slipped her puppy Minnie in the tub while she went for a bath after a trip to a beach at West Wittering in West Sussex.
She explained: “I looked at Minnie ‘the moocher’ and I thought I’m going to put her in with me.
“I need to wash her anyway because she’s covered in sand. I took her collar off and we had a bath together . . .
“My dog doesn’t know or care if I’m naked. You know how much I like to be naked.”
We sure do.
IT’S MEN BOOZING BADLY
MEN Behaving Badly buddies Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey toast their telly reunion – with a boozy travel show across France.
It sounds just like something their laddish characters Gary and Tony would have done in the hit Nineties sitcom.
Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey toast their telly reunion – with a boozy travel show across France[/caption]
The duo have reunited on telly for the first time in 27 years to film a three-part travelogue called Neil And Martin’s Bon Voyage, which drops on U&Originals on March 25.
Things get so messy that they end up sleeping in a giant wine barrel.
And Martin reveals he once signed a female fan’s boobs.
It doesn’t look like the wild trip has made them rethink boozing either, with Neil, who owns a pub in Staffordshire, joking: “I was going to brew a non-alcoholic beer and call it Why?”
THERE’S a treat for horror fans coming this month.
All three series of horror-comedy Stan Against Evil, starring Janet Varney and John C. McGinley, will stream on ITVX from this Thursday and neo-noir Deadwax, starring Hannah Gross, will stream there from March 20.
QUICK CHANGE FOR JOEL
AS host of The Masked Singer, he’s used to hearing people shout “Take it off”, now Joel Dommett has revealed how he stripped off in the street.
Talking on the Never Have I Ever podcast, he said: “I went into town to do a couple of podcasts with some friends and then I was going to run home, 25km, which was perfect.
Joel Dommett has revealed how he stripped off in the street[/caption]
“I just went into town with a little tote bag and my trainers in it, and I wore clothes that I don’t really like and I just left them there in a bush.
“People are going to pick up those clothes and are going to be like, ‘I’ve always wanted those clothes’.
“I had shorts on to run in under my jeans, which I also left in the bush . . .
“There was probably a postman in London who saw me take off my clothes and put them in a bush!”
CELEB SPECIAL IS JAM PACKED
TV stars Kate Garraway and Chris Ramsey look like a right pair of jammy beggars in these first glimpse shots from the Celebrity Great British Bake Off.
The show, as part of Channel 4’s epic Stand Up To Cancer appeal to raise funds and awareness, boasts a brilliant line up for the new series.
It starts on Sunday at 7.40pm and runs for five weeks.
Other stars taking part will include Sarah Beeny, Adam Buxton, Gloria Hunniford, Roman Kemp, Meera Syal as well as Chris’s wife Rosie Ramsey.
Another new face will be Caroline Waldegrave who joins Paul Hollywood on the two-person judging panel in place of Prue Leith.
And of course, Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond are back to keep things simmering nicely.
