Things

By | April 26, 2018
29 Comments

Some things:

  • The 100k Drop begins May 7th (Bank Holiday Monday) on Channel 4 at 4pm, avoiding the big two but still clashing with Bother’s Bar and pensioner favourite Tipping Point.
  • There is a Taskmaster book coming out on September 6th. £9.99 on Kindle, £12.99 paperback according to Amazon.
  • And speaking of Taskmaster I’m VERY PLEASED UKTV Play don’t seem to be splitting the audience by showing them a week in advance this time round so everyone can discuss on the same page. Phew. The new series starts on Wednesday 2nd May. There is an exclusive task though.
  • Not a gameshow but likely to appeal to people who like them, the second series of excellent Brazilian drama 3% is on Netflix from this weekend. “… It’s what Survivor would be a bit like if it was done through the prism of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror and The Hunger Games by way of the board game The Resistance. It has violence but not excessive amounts, it is rated 15,” is how I originally described it.

It is La Carte Aux Tresors tonight

By | April 25, 2018
8 Comments

From 7:55pm UK / 8:55pm in France. It’s on France 3 so you’ll need to use a naughty stream or the dark arts to watch. I’m busy tonight (in fact the next few days are going to be a bit quiet Barwise as I’m about to receive and set-up an exciting new computer – in theory Schlag den Henssler commentary and Game Night from my couch rather than an uncomfortable computer chair – exciting!) so will watch on catch-up at the weekend.

Here are the pre-titles and titles. I gather the original score composer has returned to redo the music.

In other news, this looks like Carnage.

May the Fifth be with you

By | April 23, 2018
23 Comments

Reports suggesting that the all new Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? with Jeremy Clarkson will be launching on Saturday May 5th. Dumb move ITV! That’s the night of the next Schlag den Henssler and the nation will be tuning into our commentary.

You’ve doubtless seen it already but here’s the trailer:

In other news thanks to Dan for pointing out this very intriguing call for contestants which I don’t want to get lost:

ITV is looking for people to take part in a new gameshow called Take the Tower. http://www.itv.com/beontv/shows/takethetower

“A brand new ITV game show is looking for a heroic team leader and three teammates to take on our tower and escape the clutches of an evil villain – and have the chance of winning cash prizes and a holiday.

To Take The Tower you and your team will have to answer questions and tackle physical and mental challenges based on iconic action movies. The more questions and challenges completed, the more the prize pot of cash increases. After different fun and varied rounds on each floor of our tower featuring physical gameplay, mental puzzles and tough trivia, our hero and any freed teammates at the top of the tower face an evil villain waiting to offer a final deal – a win or lose head to head challenge with him that could result in cash and/or a holiday with the team leader and his or her teammates – or absolutely nothing at all.”

This sounds right up our alley frankly, Dero crossed with Incredible Games. And it’s going to be for ITV4 apparently, so goodness knows what sort of budget it’s going to have.

Of course if you’re trying to escape an evil villain you want to be going down a tower to the exit not up towards him, surely. Already I have broken the format.

Show Discussion: The Button

By | April 20, 2018
36 Comments

Fridays, 8:30pm,
BBC1

Now here’s an interesting one. Ostenably it’s Taskmaster mixed with a bit of Gogglebox, from the mind of Alex Horne of Taskmaster.

Five families each have a button installed in their house with a screen on it. At any time the button might go off. They push the button and are set a task, the same task all the other families get. Once everyone has completed, the one that did the best banks money. At the end of the show the most successful team are given the choice to walk away or risk that money for a £10,000 bonus if they win the following week – win or lose it looks like all the families can stay on until they win an episode and walk away.

The half hour evening slot feels very unusual for this sort of thing so the pacing ought to be interesting. It was always intended to be a half-hour show, although I think I heard mention that the original intention was midweek so make of that what you will.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

 

Dale’s Great Getaway in the sky

By | April 18, 2018
9 Comments

Saddened to hear about the death of Dale Winton tonight, he was 62. There had been some speculation for a while as to why he hadn’t been on TV recently, but had recently been doing voiceovers for Channel 5 clip shows.

Best known for long running stints on Supermarket Sweep and In It to Win It and various lottery shows as well as lesser remembered shows such as The Other Half and 1000 to 1, nevertheless we honour him now with his legendary music video, which I’ve been informed hit the dizzy heights of number 72 in December 1994.

Show Discussion: Buy It Now

By | April 16, 2018
17 Comments

Weekdays, 5:30pm,
Channel 4

Inventors attempt to sell ideas to an audience armed with buttons and lights, and if at least one person reckons they’d buy the product it’s thrown open to a panel of buyers who may or may not make an order. Perhaps they should have called it Sell Me Out.

Given how well Dragon’s Den continues to perform it’s surprising more shows haven’t jumped on the pitching for business bandwagon – although perhaps Dragon’s Den pretty much has the market cornered – off the top of my head I can only think of The Money Pit. This one offers Brian Conley (my liking of Conley is not steeped in hipster irony) and neon. Will it be enough?