Alright, what is the connection HERE then, smartarses?

• Westlife
• Gotcha
• Starwing
• Pimp That Snack

Alright, let’s see how you did. Most of you were wrong, but Barry chimed in after the first clue with:

Bands that have had to change their names.

This would lead to an interesting dilemma, because it’s sort of right but not actually correct, although doubtless when given just one guess on television you’d probably ask for at least a second. That’s where geek comedian Tom Scott comes in:

I reckon (on two clues) that you’re close – but I’d say it’s *things* that have had to change their names.

Which is, basically correct. They are all things that had to change their name to avoid infringement. Westlife were originally known as Westside (and indeed their first single was out as Westside, if I remember correctly) before someone pointed out there was already a Westside, the Gotcha was originally the Gotcha Oscar before the Academy had a quiet word, Starwing on the Super Nintendo (and indeed N64) is known outside Europe as Starfox, because of a game called Starfox released on the Commodore 64 in the eighties, and Pimp That Snack was originally Pimp My Snack before Viacom sent a stern letter. Well done to all involved!

Meanwhile, Channel 5 are doing a magic-based gameshow which appears to be “can you outwit Philip Escoffey?” and it is called Impossible? with a question mark. It sounds like it’s probably going to be that Derren Brown trick with the money in envelopes for an hour.

Incidentally, for the past few weeks I’ve been getting a lot of referals from people searching for ‘Lady Battleaxe’, one of the WARR-iors from Knights and Warriors. Well, I’ve solved the mystery of why that might be, Dot Jones who played Lady Battleaxe is now coach Shannon Beiste in popular television show Glee. A before and after shot may follow this evening.

Or rather “question that might be OK but could probably do with some work”. This is diffierent from the one I originally envisioned, what connects the following?

• [Cambridge] First
• [The/Evening] Argus (Brighton and Hove)
• [Lots of places] Mercury
• [Lots of places] Post

CMD writes:

Last names of newspaper titles (Gazette, Express, Post, Times etc.) No, I wouldn’t care to guess where these newspapers are published.

Yes indeed, local newspapers in this case. Well done to you if you got it at home.

Also, The Million Pound Drop is casting for its October series, keep an eye out on Twitter for details. The show starts October 25th for five days with extra shows on the next two following Fridays and Saturdays.

In other news, I’m enjoying 71 Degrees North as an adventure, although the elimination aspect feels rather tacked on and tacky. Would it be a better show if it was solely about celebrities doing challenges in the Arctic and only getting sent home on medical advice? Amateurs building snow caves was quite interesting and fun. You could keep the competition aspect.