It’s been the strangest TV hit of lockdown, a mind-bending cross between Stars in their Eyes and In the Night Garden - and now The Masked Singer has been channelled into storytime at a Glasgow primary school.
The ITV programme, based on a hit show in South Korea, has celebrity contestants disguised in all manner of garish and cumbersome costumes, with a panel having to guess who is behind each mask.
That inspired staff at Merrylee Primary School in Glasgow, who from Monday will have a different teacher read a story each day from behind an animal filter.
THE MASKED READER begins THIS Monday! Every Monday, one of our teachers will read a story. Each day, Tuesday-Thursday, there will be a clue about which teacher this could be, and all will be revealed on a Friday! Who will feature first, Tigress, KoKo or Hammy?! #readingforfun pic.twitter.com/bPwkF0r2sX
- Merrylee Primary (@MerryleePS) February 11, 2021
Among many enthusiastic responses to the idea on Twitter, one teacher at another Scottish school wrote: “This is so creative and fun! I hope you don’t mind if I magpie it for my own school? Especially with World Book Day coming up!
Another response read: “This is so cool, kids will love to get involved.”
And one person made reference to a story about social media filters that went viral this week: “Can I come as a cat? I’m a lawyer.”
Merrylee Primary is hoping for some backing from the presenter and celebrity panellists of The Masked Singer themselves, having tweeted Joel Dommett, Davina McCall, Rita Ora and Jonathan Ross to ask if they will recite for the school the show’s catchphrase, uttered when each masked singer is revealed: “Take it off! Take it off!”
