That old fallback when we’re too busy to research something else worth sharing:

• Bang On The Money is a pilot with DJs Rickie and Melvin where players will “require a steady hand and nerves of steel” to win big. Could this be the UK adaptation of Denryu Irairabou we’ve ALL been on tenterhooks for? That’s filming in Maidstone on Saturday night, tickets through Applause Store. Is likely to be full-on yoof.
• This might have a game element in it I don’t know (in as much as Blind Date did), Meet the Parents with Holly Willoughby is a new dating show for ITV where parents decide who you’ll go out on a date with. Could be a lorra lorra fun. Filming Saturday 6th February at ITV Towers. Tickets Applause Store.
• No-one’s done a TV version of Scrabble for a while, this one promises celebrity team captains paired up with civilians and bonus games on premium squares. Don’t know who’s hosting (i.e. it’s probably Stephen Mulhern etc) but TWO pilot recordings are filming on February 8th at ITV Towers on the South Bank. Tickets SRO.
• Catchphrase is recording episodes in the middle of February in Maidstone. Tickets through Applause Store.
• Pointless is filming end of February to the end of March initially. We always say this is worth going to see filmed if you get the chance. That’s at Elstree, tickets through SRO.

Lots of things filming at Maidstone, not ideal but certainly much more pedestrian friendly than BLOODY Pinewood if you’re training in, or at least it was last time I went which was some time ago.

Well there’s not much else on at the moment so let me tell you about a study I recently took part in, which I think it’s OK to talk about a little now in general terms (with some of the bits omitted) because I’ve just been paid off. You fill out forms saying what you would do and then are randomly paired up with someone else, and there’s about £25 to be won in total.

To my knowledge there hasn’t been a gameshow based around the Ultimatum Game (maybe Divided as a variant), one of the games that form part of economic game theory.

In this game there is a resource, lets say 100 units. Person A proposes how it should be split. Person B decides to accept or reject the offer. If they accept, both get paid off how A split it. If B rejects, both go empty handed. There’s an added wrinkle in this particular experiment in that in some games if B rejects, A gets a small amount of money anyway (about one-sixth of what’s on offer).

As Player B you have both none of the power and all the power – in theory you can veto anything not shared equally, but by the same token leaving with *something* is better and more rational than leaving with *nothing*. In theory A can push quite hard with this knowledge, especially as in some instances they stand to make money regardless. The question is how far are you willing to roll over and take it?

As it turned out as a Player B I was pretty happy to suck it up – up to a point, expecting that I should be better off than Player A would be if he was worst off (i.e. I want more than zero, and a little bit more than what they’d get in games with a consolation prize).

Happily it turns out that I was paired up with someone pretty generous and I won about £11. My first thought was “oh that’s quite nice!” My second thought was “what a sucker, they should have had a lot more.”

Anyway that was a lot of fun, and to top it all off I appeared to have wangled myself a free coleslaw getting KFC on the way home. When you’re up you’re up.

I’m trying so hard to reign in my spending after Christmas as we approach two exciting council tax free months, so the one-two punch I’m suffering today might take a while to get over. First popular Bother’s Bar approved beat combo The Pet Shop Boys have a new album coming out in April and they’re doing a gig at the Royal Opera House which I got a ticket for, and this evening an advert on Facebook – on Facebook of all places! – that piqued my interest is a show called The Money, a cross between a theatrical performance and a game. Basically if you want to play you put a stake forward and if everybody who puts a stake forward can unanimously agree what happens with it then that thing will happen, if not it will rollover to the next performance (it’s low-stakes Unan1mous in theatre form, basically). Anybody been already? I’ve got a ticket as a silent witness.

Contemporary theatre are two words that fill me with a sort of dread but if you’re local to Cambridge and this interests you then it’s going to play out at The Guildhall in Market Square on 16th Feb, minimum donation is a tenner if you want to play, you can sit as a silent witness for £12. Tickets through the Cambridge Junction website.

If you missed it, here’s your chance to watch the entire broadcast again!

The Full write up is up at UKGameshows.com and afterparty stuff can be found after the cut.

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By doing the selection show and moving the two semi’s to BBC Four. Wow.

The UK final will be on Friday 26th February. Mel Giedroyc is hosting.

Hosted live from The O2 Forum Kentish Town by self-confessed Eurovision fan Mel Giedroyc, the 90 minute UK Eurovision extravaganza will feature performances by the six competing acts, as well as special musical guests and a look at what makes a memorable Eurovision winner.

The BBC recognises that the fan community is a very important element of the Eurovision Song Contest, therefore invited the UK branch of the OGAE to assist in the shortlisting of the entries sent in by the public. The OGAE is the largest independent Eurovision fan club in the world and its UK branch has around 1,000 members.

i.e. don’t blame us if it goes wrong, blame the fans.

Interested to see who will get to host the semi-finals in May now they’re on BBC Four and not youth-oriented BBC Three – Giedroyc? Scott Mills? The return of Paddy O’Connell? Others?