The Cellar

Slow news week.

However, @artbegotti pointed a video out to me this afternoon claiming it to be a bit Fort Boyard-esque, whilst also being from the mind of Bother’s Bar favourite Aussie comedian Shaun Micallef – as it turns out the very sketch somebody introduced me to his show with:

(Incidentally there’s usually a “gameshow segment” in The Micallef P(r)ogram(me), many of which are very funny indeed so do check them out.)

Fort Boyard already has “pied marin” – sea legs, and it’s one of our favourite games. But imagine something a bit puzzlier and spatial awareness-y, how incredible could it be? Would probably require one of the Fort’s bigger rooms, especially if it would have to rotate.

Speaking of Aussie comics, it looks like the second series of Bother’s Bar favourite 31 Questions is wrapping up filming soon, so fingers crossed it won’t be long until broadcast!

Meanwhile they’re looking for contestants for The Million Pound Drop, if you want a go you can apply here.

They’re told to “say what you see,” well I see that Travis Penery and new panellist Sam Hodkin are talking to Lewis Murphy about the Catchphrase revival, amongst other things! OK Mr Chips, you can put the knife down now.

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Our show discussion post on Catchphrase is here.

IN OTHER NEWS Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge is coming back for a fourth series. If you’re between 12 and 18 are are free between 18th-25th June, e-mail fortboyard@foundationtv.co.uk for details. Lines close 20th May, UK residents only.

So! I’ve accidentally come across a guy on Youtube who has been making covers of mid-2000s pieces of music from Fort Boyard. Some created from scratch, some recreated from samples. Here’s his version of “Toile d’aragnee” (The Spider’s Web):

And for reference, here’s how it sounds in real life, with Team Miss France from 2008:

Amazing. He’s done others as well. We encourage you to subscribe to Ch4Lizard’s channel, and encourage him to make more!

Isn’t it the Dutch that have a word for that period between Christmas and New Year? Anyway it’s the Saturday of it, and it turns out there’s loads on. I’m not qute sure what my strategy for all of this is going to be yet.

• 30 Years of CITV - I was always more of a CITV person than a CBBC one to be honest – Cosgrove Hall animation, Knightmare, Funhouse, Finders Keepers, Art Attack etc. Blue Peter? Get outta town. So here’s a documentary on 30 years of CITV. (6:30pm, ITV1) Next weekend it’s the old-skool weekend.
• Superstars 2012 – Haven’t decided if this is going to get a seperate post or not. Anyway it’s back for the nth time, but this time round they’ve got relevant sporting stars which is interesting. I wonder how much it would cost to get David Beckham in. (6:45pm, BBC1)
• Fort Boyard New Year Special: It’s a real shame that these night time seasonal specials haven’t rated well because they’ve been very entertaining and they’ve put a ton of effort into them, sprucing up the Fort and creating games used once for them and never seen again (although it would be nice if next year there was a bit less “putting a snake in it” in their new games when it could be “being a bit more ingenious”. And cut out a segment and became 90 minutes). Anyway, here’s the New Year’s Special, which we know involves a game where contestants must shake up bottles of “champagne” and then pop the cork to hit a target. Clever. (7:45pm UK time, France 2 and inevitably Youtube before the night has ended)
• National Lottery Secret Fortune – Not much more of this left. (8:15pm, BBC1)
• Dale’s Great Getaway - We were at the recording of this, you can read about that here. You might want to direct your discussion of the show there as well. (8:45pm, ITV1)

Merry Christmas readers, Bother’s Bar will be on minimum updates over Christmas period (which is different to when? – Everyone in the World) but I will still be around, and will certainly be on Twitter.

So here are some things for you to do and look forward to over the next week or so:

• Tonight it’s the Fort Boyard Christmas Special on France 2 at 7:35pm UK time. We’ll be watching it on Pluzz through a VPN, although on previous form it will almost certainly be up on Youtube in some capacity before the night is out. The New Year’s special is next Saturday also.
• Tonight it’s ALSO, we think, the Avanti un Altro Survived the Apocalypse special on Italy’s Canale 5, although you’ll be able to watch it online later. If it wasn’t on last year it’d almost certainly top the international section of the UKGameshows.com Poll of 2012 I reckon.
• Speaking of which that’s coming in the New Year. In the meantime I currently have a poll up re: the Bother Series of Poker. If you have an interest in playing it’d be nice if you could fill it in.
• This Monday it’s Fifty 50 Show, featuring the 21 Questions Wrong CHRISTMAS SPECIAL! And we wouldn’t call it a special if it wasn’t SPECIAL…
• Channel 5 continue to do World’s Strongest Man wrong, Thursday at 8pm.
• Next Saturday there’s a lot on – Superstars 2012 on BBC1 at 6:45 and Dale’s Great Getaway ay ITV1 at 8:30. Show discussion posts will go up for these two in due course, and you can read what we thought about Great Getaway as we went to the recording.

Also maybe you got a new iThing for Christmas. Well we will try and update our list of iThing gameshow reviews over the festive period. If you want to know if a gameshow app is good and it’s not up there then feel free to ask in the interim.

Merry Christmas!

Hello, sorry, Christmas.

Just a few things:

• Really pleased Avanti un Altro has had its daily run extended until the end of March. There is even a Christmas song!
• Tomorrow we record the 21 Questions Wrong Christmas Special for this weekend’s Fifty 50 Show. And then after I promise to write up the The Chase app properly. Preview: it’s really good.
• Seen on Buzzerblog, Victory Television looking for pairs of contestants for a new Channel 4 quiz. Sounds like a combination of general knoweldge and lateral thinking are needed. Very (very) idly wondering if Twee tot des Zesde Macht has sold recently. Sidenote: As Channel 4 are looking for hit game formats for their afternoons, I still don’t see why nobody has thought about trying De Slimste Mens, even if it’s a civilian version.
• And don’t forget! It’s the Fort Boyard Christmas Special this Saturday on France 2, 7:45pm UK time. If you’ve access to a VPN or similar, you can watch it live on Pluzz.