Show Discussion: In For A Penny

By | April 13, 2019

Saturday, 7:30,
ITV

So many question marks with this one.

On the one hand it’s a vox-pop show, and these never ever ever ever (ever) do any kind of business. On the other hand, it’s based on an apparently popular segment on Saturday Night Takeaway, so it has brand recognition. On the one hand it has Stephen Mulhern, and like it or not he’s good at this sort of thing and dealing with members of the public. On the other hand it has Stephen Mulhern. On the one hand, it should be quite funny in way Ready or Not wasn’t. On the other hand, the cash prizes on offer seem rather unexciting, in a similar way Ready or Not wasn’t. On the one hand, they’ve sensibly limited it to half an hour. On the other hand, that’s 26 minutes longer than it had to entertain on Saturday Night Takeaway.

So you’ll understand why we’re finding this a difficult one to call, it has trends it has to buck but it’s probably the show most likely to buck those trends. They’re giving it every chance, hammocked between Ninja Warrior and Britain’s Got Talent so suspect the figure might flatter to deceive a bit, still that’s scheduling for you.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

15 thoughts on “Show Discussion: In For A Penny

  1. John R

    This flew by surprisingly fast, enjoyed the guy chatting to his mum in a different language to bend the rules slightly (as he pointed out they never mentioned the conversation had to be in English!)

    Hopefully they have some different games lined up for each episode though and it wouldn’t be anywhere near as good with anyone other than Mulhern

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Will be very interesting to see a five minute breakdown tomorrow, people tuning in early for BGT likely to inflate the numbers by rather a lot.

      Feels more like 6:30 than 7:30 to me.

      Reply
  2. Callum J

    Good to see a ‘new’ show getting a positive Twitter reaction for once!

    Reply
  3. Chris M. Dickson

    I think they deliberately left that sort of loophole open; I don’t think that there was anything obvious to prohibit a contestant from going “please would you repeat the word DRAWBRIDGE?” or alternatively “what word is spelled d-r-a-w-b-r-i-d-g-e?” and they would have rolled with it if they had.

    Is Stephen Mulhern the modern Michael Barrymore?

    Reply
  4. Kniwt

    So, basically, it’s 15 minutes of rather worthless (and extraordinarily low-budget) filler in front of a new episode of the classic Takeaway segment. Interesting that Ant & Dec get a “Creative Consultants” credit at the end, which was probably the most interesting part of the whole 22 minutes.

    Mostly harmless.

    Reply
    1. Kniwt

      Which, upon further reflection, leads me to this thought: I know that we Just Don’t Do 10-minute shows (unless you’re on YouTube … where, incidentally, this would be Right At Home), but standalone classic In For A Penny would be a perfect 10-minute show to drop in between two other shows that happen to have funky lengths to round up to an even hour or half-hour.

      Reply
      1. David Howell

        Or even just airing right before a talent show as it did here. 7pm IFaP into a 7:10-8:30 BGT/XF/Voice. The Pixar short of television!

        Reply
  5. Brig Bother Post author

    3.4m for IFAP, helped by a sudden influx in the last ten minutes, nevertheless didn’t drop beneath 3m for the duration. They’ll be pretty OK with that. Can’t cost more than 2p to make.

    Reply
    1. Score

      One thing of interest here is that apparently it was ITV’s third highest rating broadcast of the year so far amongst kids, only behind the two episodes of Britain’s Got Talent aired so far. That’s the sort of thing that probably increases its stock a bit.

      Reply
  6. Brandon

    Idea: pair this with another half-hour format like Wheel of Fortune as a Tipping Point replacement.

    Reply
  7. Matt Clemson

    Having managed to miss the whole previous series of Takeaway, this is the first time I’ve actually watched this, and my overwhelming take on it is “This is like if Stash had, like, 50x the budget. Maybe even 100x!”

    Somewhere Paul Hendy is shaking his fist at the telly.

    Reply
  8. Callum J

    In For a Penny has been renewed for a second series and Christmas special!

    Reply

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