CRIME-BUSTING ROLE FOR DANCING STAR
Brendan Cole is participating in a crime-writing reality show
Strictly Come Dancing star Brendan Cole is set to swap his dancing shoes for the crime-writer's pen in a new BBC reality show.
The fox-trotting lothario is one of six celebrities who will star in Murder Most Famous, a BBC2 show.
Cole, 31, and the other contestants, also expected to include ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, will learn from police and pathologists how to solve murders.
They will be assigned challenges in the art of murder detection and the winning celebrity will get the chance to write a crime novel.
Best-selling British author Minette Walters, who has sold 20 million copies of her thrillers, will act as the celebrities' mentor.
Their training will include dog tracking, learning the signs of resisting violent attack, and gleaning evidence from autopsies.
The celebrities - the full line-up is yet to be announced - will have to use what they have learnt from real criminals and victims, as well as firearms experts, pathologists and the police to complete daily writing challenges.
Walters, whose books have been adapted into five prime-time BBC dramas starring Daniel Craig, Clive Owen, and Pauline Quirke, will set the challenges.
She will also oversee the celebrities' writing efforts and "bump off" the least impressive wannabe author at the end of each day.
The winning celebrity will then write a novel which will be published by PanMacmillan on World Book Day in 2009. Murder Most Famous will be broadcast over five days in the daytime in March.
Dailystar
