No Beverly Hills Cop 4 movie! Boooo! TV show instead! Um ... yaaaay!

Never one to flog a dead horse, Eddie Murphy has confirmed that instead of Beverly Hills Cop 4 being a movie, it'll be a TV show. Which we will all watch as long as he PROMISES to throw in a couple of fat-suit scenes.

I get the feeling that Eddie Murphy's star is in the ascendancy again, you know. Tower Heist is a lot less awful than you'd expect, and ... well, that's all the evidence I have, really. Didn't think it through as much as I might have. He hasn't been caught picking up any transvestite prostitutes recently, I suppose: does that count?

In amongst as many cheap jibes about the guy's private life as we can squeeze in, let's take a moment to recognise the news that the Beverly Hills Cop film franchise, the first and possibly second of which (other than a memory of a bit where Eddie mimics another cop saying "We ain't gonna fall for no banana in our tailpipe" they all just blur into one for me) were really very good, will not be given the big-screen treatment for the fourth time.

Instead, Murphy explained:

added the star of Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.

In my head, frontrunners for the role of Axel Jr have to be Omar off The Wire, Foreman off House or Luther off Luther. Or Lil' Bow Wow. Or perhaps Ludacris? Or Kenan and Kel playing brothers? Or Anthony Anderson of Kangaroo Jack fame? Obviously there comes a point when I'm just naming black people. Let me know if it starts getting racist.

Um ... Daley Thompson? [NOW it's racist - Ed.]

Sorry. Anyway, this is splendid news. Why not celebrate by putting on four or five different shirts and recording a YouTube video of yourself performing Axel F in various different vocal parts like a Bobby McFerrin for the digital generation? In all likelihood you'll be the envy of your colleagues and peers.