The Door revisited

By | August 31, 2018

There’s no Crystal Maze tonight as it’s ended its run. So! Thanks to a tweet from @danielmarkhurst let us revisit what ITV were determined to make “the new Crystal Maze” in 2010 with the second of two episodes of… The Door, with thanks to the uploader:

Looking at it through 2018 eyes it looks pretty damn lavish, they would have had to have built separate sets for each of the challenges and they look pretty good. Really it’s a shame the challenges are a bit trite (and it feels like that laser maze goes on for about ten minutes) and involve a lot of Rummaging In Stuff (this was particularly true of the first ep IIRC) and the US style confessionals remain hugely irritating. Great imagination in the sets, less so in the content. If you want to read what we thought at the time, there are two threads here and here.

It’s not the first time ITV had tried to upscale Bushtucker Trials into their own format as they tried making a big thing of Scream If You Want To Get Off, starring Nigel Marven and Charlie Brockett, but despite the claims at the time it was the scariest show on television it basically ended up being It’s a Knockout + an occasional animal in South Africa. It didn’t last long.

It always amazes me to remember that in the first series of I’m a Celeb, one of the trials was just Nell McAndrew on a Bucking Bronco.

6 thoughts on “The Door revisited

  1. Brandon

    Is this the one that had so many different hosts, most of which had absolutely nothing to do? I remember this as part of that weird trend where format devisors massively misunderstood how and why stress works in some game shows. I specifically remember all the promo stuff for The Colour Of Money, another show hosted by Chris Tarrant from around the same time, calling it “The most stressful game on television” even though all the contestants have to do is say some colours and shout stop. https://youtu.be/UyLdIXBBrAg

    Reply
      1. Brandon

        I remember another show very similar to this that played up the fear aspect just as much, but it had several different hosts because no of them stayed more than a couple of episodes. I thought Amanda Holden was in this other similar show that I remember, but I think some elements of The Door have got mixed in with several other shows in my head.

        Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          I’m trying to work out what you could be confusing it with, the only show off the top of my head with loads of hosts is Cannonball and it can’t be that surely.

          Reply
  2. John R

    I think the problem with this was it was basically celebs facing their fears, but without a jungle or Ant and Dec…also Chris Tarrant and Amanda Holden has to be one of the most random pairings ever! (I suppose this was around the time ITV were trying to find a new vehicle for Tarrant with the end of Millionaire being quite obvious by then)

    One show I’m surprised never got another go was Jailbreak on Channel 5, it could be quite good these days with social media and lots of people watch Prison Break and/or OITNB on Netflix!

    OK, I just want a third series of The Mole UK 🙁

    Reply

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