Show discussion: Pointless Series 3

By | August 30, 2010
33 Comments

Popular Alexander Armstrong quiz Pointless returns for its third series today at 4:30pm on BBC2, here’s a place to discuss it.

The biggest change is in round two which works quite well and opens up quite a large avenue to explore – the category is given (in this first episode “movies and their taglines”) and then six tagliunes are bought up. The object is to select one and give the correct movie the tag comes from. If they are correct, they score the same amount as the amount of the 100 people who also got it right (so the object is pick the ones you know that also fewest people knew), a wrong answer scores an automatic 100. A second set of questions comes up after the first sweep. At a very basic level, you could ask any set of questions that has been tested on the 100 respondees here, turning into a sort of Pointless take on Beat the Nation. It looks like there’s a pointless answer on each list as well, although this isn’t explicitly stated, and in the first episode brings some surprising results. I prefer it to series two’s round two, which seemed a bit easy.

Round three has been reduced to best of three rather than five. Otherwise no other changes to report. Pointless is probably the best daytime quiz on the telly right now, and possibly one of the most consistantly entertaining quizzes full stop.

INTERACTIVE Board of Excitement 29th August – 4th September 2010

By | August 29, 2010
36 Comments

Yes it’s like being in 1998 all over again and INTERACTIVITY is all the rage.

Basically, it’s a Bank Holiday and I’m going to a barbeque so I’m taking the day off. But if YOU were writing the Board of Excitement for this week, what exciting things would you put in it?

Stick suggestions in the comments and I’ll update this later.

Edit: Right, so what in the opinions of the punters are the interesting things on telly this week? Sorry for the typos if any, I’ve just got back from being drunk.

  • Run For Money (the Saturday just gone, Fuji TV): Oops. Still, what better way to celebrate a Bank Holiday (in the UK) by someone hopefully putting it up on YouTube, or other video sharing site?
  • Pointless (Monday-Friday, 4:30pm, BBC2): Thanks to Perfection not being able to record things properly, the third series of popular Alexander Armstrong quiz has been bought forward. Now apparently includes a modified second round where you need to show some knowledge of the thing you intend to pick.
  • Fangarna pa Fortet (TV4 and online, Sweden, Monday- Wednesday): There may well be some squiggly things above some of those letters, but it’s late and I’m tired. The Prisoners on the Fort‘s return to Swedish screens seems to by all accounts be a big success, and has probably made a better job at a competitive version than even the French. Or at least has retained some of the old personality. You can watch them here. Two more heats and the grand final on Wednesday.
  • America’s Got Talent (America, Tuesday, Wednesday 8:00 EDT/0000 GMT): We’re four shows into this week’s Board of Excitement, and only one of them is British. Or perhaps two if you count America’s Got Talent which is as good as.
  • A party (Friday): Alex is off to a party. I don’t think we’re invited 🙁
  • Two weeks to it being the next Schlag den Raab (Saturday night): Self explanatory.
  • University Challenge (8pm, Monday, BBC2) – Newcastle vs Sheffield. This should probably have gone nearer the top.

So there we are. British competitive entertainment is in rude health! Still, Only Connect is back next week.

Soft, strong and very very long

By | August 28, 2010
8 Comments

We were shown some old French shows during the past week which were, as I’m sure you could guess, quite interesting. Here, for example, is a very young looking Patrice Laffont hosting Des Chiffres et Des Lettres in 1972.

But more interesting than that, the show that begat Des Chiffres… namely Le Mot Le Plus Long. I thought I would write a feature on it, so here you are.

Another question that looks easier than it is

By | August 27, 2010
3 Comments

Friend of the bar John Hoare asks a very interesting question, but first here is a clip from Bullseye:

Those were the titles, but can you think of any other show that had a different version of the theme played out over the credits depending on if they win or lose? Because I can’t but something nags at me.

Trying to be the best that they can

By | August 25, 2010
17 Comments

It’s nice to have a video to break the text up occasionally:

But my question to you is: can anyone remember how the tournament structure worked? I think there were 32 weeks of heats leading to eight semi-finals, then somehow a final but that doesn’t sound quite right. Anyone?