That’s right! And after threatening to do some sort of retrospective for a while, I think it’s time to take a bit of stock.

It’s always fun to go back to when shows first started and look at our reaction to them.

Our first foray into the world of Pointless was friend of the Bar Martyn went and saw an episode being filmed in series one. This was written up on July 31st 2009. “It’s actually what would happen if Who Dares Wins and Family Fortunes mated – and it sort of works… Alexander is a affable chap and if the edit allows him to be  quickwitted and doesn’t cut out the post question banter with Richard then it  will be a welcome addition to the land of quizzes… in the right timeslot (i.e not up against Edmonds or O’Grady) it may just become the sleeper gameshow of the year.” Bang on there, Martyn. And look! My addenum (“It’s unfortunate then than at 45 minutes, I suspect it’s going in Weakest Link‘s slot…”) turned out to be correct in the end so rerally, well done me.

(Although I think it would be prudent to ignore the final message in the comment box, “I wouldn’t get too excited just yet, I think the game sounds basically solid but I don’t think it’s going to excite too many people when it finally gets broadcast.” Or at least include this hilarious comment about Panic Attack (“In conclusion: Irish.”))

So what about Episode 1, eh? Well the video on Youtube doesn’t work very well. So here’s episode two (despite what the title says):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKx2kD94AzA

Look how young Xander and Richard look! Clearly Pointless is the most challenging show in television to make. Also that swooshy graphics thing the first time a contestant gives an answer – good job they got rid of that I think.

Anyway that went out on August 24th at 4:30pm on BBC2, I wrote about it on August 25th (funny grammatical joke regarding would have/would of, surprise that Richard Osman would be involved, good use of the word ‘pizzicato’, “He’s very likable and quick witted, he just has some irritating habits,” and finally concluded that “yeah it’s just a list quiz, but the second guessing the public’s knowledge element so that all answers are not equal is an entertaining twist. Possibly surprisingly, because I’m unsure it will be a hit, we’d place it in the upper quartile of daytime quizzes in the last five years.).

Comments are fun – is Alexander Armstrong scathing enough? The set is horrible! It should give away more money! “Most of the banter between Alexander and Richard has been left on the edit room floor.” – the bang on Mart S again, although of course they corrected that for series two by dropping a pair of contestants to fit more banter in. What show other than Michael Barrymore’s Strike It Lucky could succeed in such in thing! David B was hilariously uncomplimentary.

Fast forward to a bitter day in January this year where we go and see it live and end up overestimating Richard Osman’s height and compare watching it live to a Jane Austen novel, betraying the fact I have an English A-Level. For me it remains one of the shows you absolutely should go and try and see being recorded live – no matter how funny it comes across on screen, the reality is much more fun.

And that’s how The Bar has covered the first 200 episodes of Pointless! Pity about the French version though.

Well I was hoping to watch this live on a Justin TV stream, unfortunately one doesn’t exist. (Edit: although see comments)

A chum sent me a link to a very dodgy live feed that kept cutting out every five minutes and now doesn’t work at all, but it was nice whilst it lasted.

Happily it looks like it’s being cut into chunks and uploaded on the TV Total site, albeit with adverts. It is not, at time of writing, geoblocked.

Stefan Raab is hosting and Lena is doing all the Green Room interviews. Maybe we’ll stick up YouTube footage of the winning entry later on.

I’m expecting one of these in the post soon:

No Darren McMullen, but you can click on that for a slightly bigger view if you like. Anyway, fair is fair:

Minute To Win It is an eight-part series on ITV2, presented by Cadbury Spots v Stripes, which sees contestants compete in hilarious and bonkers 60-second challenges using everyday household objects. To find out more and play Minute To Win It games, visit the Spots v Stripes website here www.spotsvstripes.com

And obviously Minute to Win It is currently being shown on ITV2 on Tuesdays at 8pm.

High Stakes begins Tuesday October 11th on ITV1.

I’m having nightmares that having slagged the idea off for so long, I’m going to watch it and end up enjoying it. Brr.

I’ve been watching some French things all morning. Here is a quick precis:

• Code Delta – Family adventure show sort of a bit like La Carte Aux Tresors but with geocaching. Two families of three (mum, dad and child) are given a location to find on a GPS normally betewrrn 3-5km away. First team there gets two minutes to search the area for cannisters with end game clues in them. If they aren’t all found, the other team gets two minutes to find the rest. Then there’s a challenge, the winning team gets a two minute headstart in the next race. Repeat for a third time. The end game relates to a landmark in the area given in rebus form, the first family to work out what it is wins a holiday. And that’s it, quite jolly but that’s as far as it goes. It’s all done and dusted in 30 minutes. (France 3)
• Les 12 Coups de Midi – This has been mentioned on the Bar before, it’s basically Bother’s Bar favourite Cresus but hosted by Jean-Luc Reichmann in a more purple set with one fewer contestant, one fewer round and more slowly paced. (TF1)
• Le Juste Prix – Hurrah! We do of course LOVE LaGaf’s Le Juste Prix and it’s new season began last night. This is the first full episode I’ve seen for ages, so nice touches to point out: if you hit the one bid on the nose you get a trophy and a comedy oversize cheque for €100. Their version of Cliffhanger, Tyrolienne, is played with the mountain climber going up the back of a shark. They’ve got a game called Mini-bar which is basically Hole in One except they have to slide a drink down a saloon bar into a hole. I love this show! (TF1)
• Money Drop – Just finished its nightly run and apparently has done alright. It’s got an interesting take on the US set (lots of safe doors, the money drop is essentially a giant funnel), the theme tune is alright, the clock music is mainly lots of beeping, the waiting for the answer reveals more interminable then I think I can remember them being over here. The idea that you can skip a question if you bet everything in play (couples begin with €250k in bundles of €5k) on an answer and if it’s correct means you can skip the next question is quite interesting, in theory it means the less you have the easier it gets to get to the end because you might as well just go for it anyway. Qs 1-7 are all four choice, Q8 (which can’t be skipped) is the fifty-fifty as usual. (TF1)

Do any of the Bar’s French friends have any recommendations?