Hello Gang! This Friday is the annual Christmas Game Night and I am looking for panellists.

You need:

• To be free on Friday night, from roughly 8:45pm to midnight GMT (although it probably won’t go on quite that long). I’m aware this might make it tough for working Americans – unavoidable I’m afraid, sorry.
• Have a microphone to chat with and a second screen to play with.
• A decent internet connection would be useful, as Google Hangouts runs on a P2P system (this will change to Discord in the New Year).
• A Twitter so I can send you info.

If this sounds like you now’s the time to apply. The easiest thing to do to show your interest is to leave a comment here. The second easiest thing to do is to drop me a Direct Message on Twitter – please don’t just reply to standard tweet as it risks getting lost and forgotten about.

To test my sound set-up I’m proposing recording Game Night Extra on THURSDAY NIGHT from 10-11. This will be a private recording that will go out after the main event on Friday, we will be playing non-Jackbox Use Your Words, and doubles as being a sound set-up test. You’ll need all the things above but to be free on Thursday night.

You can apply for either or both, please don’t be offended if you don’t get selected – we get oversubbed these days and I cast based on a number of different criteria. Needless to say if you’ve not been a panellist before you are very much encouraged to apply, doubly so if you’re female. I can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that we will be requiring a Voice of the Audience for the Arbitrary Final, so keep your mic ready even if you’re not selected.

I want to let people know if they’re needed on Wednesday, so please apply before Wednesday afternoon.

Yes I know Friday is an odd day to do it, but Boyard Land starts on the Saturday and I’m obliged to watch it, really. Think of it as a way out of work Christmas drinks, if you want. Good luck!

Saturday, 7:15pm (UK)/8:15pm (Germany)
ProSieben or your naughty alternative of choice.

Join us for another exciting edition of Schlag den Star where once again two celebs will be battling it out over 15 mystery events for €100,000.

If you’ve got a microphone you’ll be welcome to join us and hangout in the Hangout – link will appear here after we start broadcast – remember it’s a privilege not a right. We will probably be moving to Discord for this in the New Year, so sign up if you want to join us then.

This episode it’s battle of the MEN as actor Wotan Wilke Möhring takes on footballer Jens Lehmann, with music from Milky Chance and James Blunt.

The link to the commentary stream will be live here from 7:15pm until end of broadcast.

This stream is commentary only. You will need to have a naughty stream running at the same time for the visuals. We are likely to be about 15-20 seconds behind the visual stream (and about a full minute behind if you’re watching an actual satellite feed), sorry.

The Opera VPN has apparently stopped being useful for SdS. Bother’s Bar recommends shelling out for a proper VPN service. Bother’s Bar uses Tunnelbear, other VPN services are available. Matt Clemson recommends Windscribe as a free alternative. We cannot take responsibility for anything you do to your system, so be careful and use some common sense.

To watch it would be useful to sign up for ProSieben’s catch-up service – it’s pretty simple to work out, don’t click the box if you don’t want e-mail messages. You will need to put in a proper e-mail because it will send you a confirmation. 

If anyone knows of any relatively safe livestreams, do feel free to share.

Barnstorm have got four places in the iOS Top 10 paid for app charts with their various TV quiz adaptation apps, and rightly so.

I’m going to stick my neck out and suggest this next one probably isn’t going to join them.

Haven’t played it yet – might be a terrific appterpretation of a non-hit show. Will try and do a Plays Badly of it in the near future. All the bumpf here.

I’ve got three Christmas dinners to go to over the next week or so, so probably best not to expect too much this and next week (although we’ve got Schlag den Star on Saturday and, put it your diaries, Christmas Game Night next Friday night (Because Boyard Land starts the following day)).

Anyway this turned up on Youtube the other day, an episode of A Word In Your Ear, the Saturday night BBC show that was axed then bought by The Family Channel, with host and producer Gordon Burns no-nonsenseing his way through comedy communication challenges. I always quite enjoyed the “draw things described only with geometric shapes” bit, although surely the blindfold statue test is way easier than the Duplo block task.

I hope you will be able to join us for the final Schlag den Star commentary of the year this coming Saturday from 7:15pm, actor Wotan Wilke Möhring takes on World Cup hero Jens Lehmann for €100,000 in a contest being advertised with “high testosterone” and “real men!”

In other news, Vanna White takes over hosting duties this week on Wheel of Fortune in the US (with apparently Minnie Mouse taking over letter revealer duties, as it’s an on location week) as Pat Sajak was taken in for emergency surgery on an intestine during filming. It’s actually not without precedent:

Have there been any other unusual role reversals in Gameshowland?

Apparently it’s murder-mystery week at Bother’s Bar, so here’s a fun thing that’s just turned up, Youtube channel TVM (a very promising channel which specialises in TV production music) has come up with the clean opening and closing themes to Cluedo, not a great show, but a hugely evocative theme.

Thought experiment: who’d play who in Cluedo 2020?