Phillipe Starck with his design for a Kronenbourg beer bottle, 2004. Photograph: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty
The news that Philippe Starck is to front his own Design Idol-style reality show seems so inevitable that it's a wonder no one came up with the idea 20 years ago when zany Frenchmen were all the rage on British TV.
Come to think of it, doesn't the whole thing sound 20 years too late? Starck's reputation as the enfant terrible of design has given way to a sort of grudging respectability, while these days there's no arguing with his considerable body of design classics or his charismatic appeal.
And maybe that's enough to carve himself a role as the Simon Cowell of design (actually I see him more as an enigmatic version of Louis Walsh). I'm sure he'll make for entertaining television, and if the British public can take Raymond Blanc's mangled vowels to their hearts, they should have no problem with his often inscrutable delivery.
But it all feels a little safe, a little too late, a little bit pantomime. Have BBC2 missed a trick in choosing a grand dame of the past over the next generation's spring-heeled jack (to mix a few metaphors)? What do you think? An inspired choice or a missed opportunity?
