3.75 Quick and clever. ( )

This is one of the earlier outings for Simon Brett's down-at-heel actor Charles Paris, set in the early 1980s, and finds him ruing the realisation that his career seems to be continuing its general downward spiral. As this novel opens he is at least in work, but the role is far from glamorous.

West End Television, a local commercial station in London, has a long-established record of focusing on the less intellectually stretching end of the television market, and Is eager to move into the rapidly expanding field of game shows. To this end, it has secured the UK rights to a successful American TV game show Hats Off and, is preparing to make a series under the revised name of If the Cap Fits.

This scenario offers Simon Brett the opportunity for a searing satire of the world of game shows. The basic premise behind If the Cap Fits is that contestants drawn from the general public, and paired with celebrities, have to guess which of four representatives of different professions would wear which hat. Charles Paris is there … not as one of the celebrities but as an actor, because for the wacky world of 1980s TV game shows, actors can obviously be represented by Tudor bonnets. Of course, the actor in question has to be someone whom the public would be unlikely to recognise, which renders it a role made for Charles Paris.

Needless to say, before very long someone is dead, in questionable circumstances, and Charles finds himself delving more deeply for clues. In this case, the victim is Barrett Doran, the unwholesome host of the game show, and there is a large cohort of potential perpetrators.

When one of the Assistant Producers of the programme is arrested as prime suspect, Charles is called upon by her friends to help clear her name. As ever, Charles in turn suspects virtually all of the potential suspects before alighting on the actual killer.

Simon Brett is a master at combining a robust murder story and investigation with comedy. Charles Paris is an appealing character – far from perfect, but all too aware of his flaws. Brett also manages to satirise (gently but tellingly) the pitfalls and shortcomings of producing television fodder for the masses. ( )

Kept me guessing until the end. Another triumph for Mr Paris - and Simon Brett. ( )

Charming send-up of the television industry. I listened to this as an audiobook and one always wonders whether the book is enhanced by an outstanding reader. In this case, especially, as this edition is read by the Simon Prebble so brilliantly.

Charles Parris is a failed actor whose agent gets him a job as one of the "professions" on a new game show entitled "If the Cap Fits." And so begin the puns and ridicule. (Cap, in addition to being a hat, can also be a diaphragm.) Virtually everyone associated with the industry is gently skewered, not the least of which are the lawyers who wrote "unreasonable" into the contract and then couldn't give a judgment on what unreasonable conditions might be, suggesting only a court could resolve that one.

Funny caricatures abound, and then the emcee drinks a glass of gin that has been poisoned and Charles is forced into playing detective once again as he searches for the killer. Light, fun, listen.
( )

This is one of the earlier outings for Simon Brett's down-at-heel actor Charles Paris and his career seems to be continuing its general downward spiral. As this novel opens he is at least in work, but the role is far from glamorous.
West End Television has secured the UK rights to the successful American TV game show Hats Off and, under the revised name of If the Cap Fits.

This offers Brett the opportunity for a searing satire of the world of game shows. The basic premise behind If the Cap Fits is that contestants drawn from the general public, and paired with celebrities, have to guess which of four representatives of different professions would wear which hat. Charles Paris is there as an actor, because for the wacky world of TV game shows, actors can be represented by Tudor bonnets. Of course, the actor in question has to be someone whom the public would be unlikely to recognise - in fact, a part made for Charles Paris.

Needless to say, before very long someone is dead, in questionable circumstances, and Charles finds himself delving more deeply for clues. In this case, the victim is Barrett Doran, the unwholesome host of the game show, and there is a large cohort of potential perpetrators.

Brett worked for several years as a television producer at the BBC and then in the commercial sector so he knows his material well, and he is able to focus his gaze on the world of game shows to great effect. As usual, the story is delivered in a humorous vein, though the plot remains sufficiently robust and watertight to stand up on its own merits. ( )