TOO MUCH TOO YOUNG On Sky One

An eye-opening insight into the dark side of fame, Too Much Too Young is a captivating but altogether uneasy watch.

Narrated by Jeremy Edwards, and featuring exclusive footage of a young Amy Winehouse and an interview with Heath Ledgers uncle, Too Much Too Young explores the camera-fodder lives of Amy Winehouse, Pete Doherty, Britney Spears and the deceased Heath Ledger, charting their soaring highs and gutter lows.

In an age where everyone seems to want their fifteen minutes in the limelight, the show asks, is the price of fame really worth it?

Winehouse and Doherty are considered musical geniuses of the 21st century, but, in this tabloid-crazed era, they are more recognisable for their drug-addled activities than their song-writing. Similarly, the life of superstar Spears, a walking car-crash, has degenerated into a grotesque soap-opera, from two failed marriages and the lost custody of her children to her recent enforced hospitalisation and suicide watch. Her every move watched by packs of paparazzi, the world awaits her latest screw-up with gleeful anticipation.

And finally, we come to the tragic case of actor Heath Ledger, a casualty of fame. Despite being at the peak of his career, the awe-inspiring talent was visibly uncomfortable with the weight of adoration and expectation. Unable to cope with the unrelenting pressure of celebrity, he allegedly survived on an array of prescription drugs for anxiety and depression. And sadly, in what has been ruled an accidental death, Ledger swallowed a cocktail of the said drugs and passed away.

With contributions from close relatives, tutors, teachers, hairdressers and the very people that surround the young stars of today Too Much Too Young provides a glance through the looking glass at what its like to be a young celebrity today and live under the heat of the spotlight.

A denouement and damnation of an industry that thrusts its stars into the limelight but doesn’t take care of them, Too Much Too Young is absorbing, but deeply saddening viewing.

Too Much Too Young, Thursday 3 April, 9pm, Sky One and Sky One HD