Show Discussion: Alphabetical S2

By | October 1, 2017
27 Comments

Weekdays, 3pm,
ITV

Jeff Stelling returns with a new run of the alphabet-based quiz which promised lots of questions and nothing but, and yet when it came to the end game managed to ask not enough questions and proved impossible to win – not because of difficulty of the questions per se, because the contestants didn’t have enough time to go through them all.

Hopefully they’ve amended that or there will be no chance of a third run – audiences will accept difficulty, they won’t accept being inherently unwinnable – the Spanish show goes months without a winner but that’s not because of the clocks.

Hopefully they’ve stopped asking people to say “alphabetical” instead of “pass”.

On the plus side the jackpot has rolled over from last series so there’s a big wedge of cash to be won, and if you still want lots of questions you will probably get your wish.

Better than series one? No different? Let us know in the comments.

Show Discussion: Escape

By | October 1, 2017
3 Comments

Sundays, 8pm,
Channel 4

Scrapheap Challenge meets dehydration at last as five engineers (led by survival expert Ant Middleton) are dropped inside hostile terrain with only the wreckage of a large crashed vehicle for company, the object being to salvage parts and to build a new vehicle and… escape.

It will be interesting to see if the show concentrates on the building or survival aspects more. If you watch it do let us know what you think in the comments.

Schlag den Henssler Watchalong 30/9/17 #bbsdh

By | September 29, 2017
6 Comments

Saturday, 7:15 UK (8:15 Europe)
ProSieben or naughty streaming services

Tweet us on #bbsdh

It’s been a long Summer but Schlag den… is back with a new regular antagonist: celebrity chef Steffen Henssler, and a new prize pot of €250,000 if anybody can best him over fifteen unusual mystery events of skill, dexterity, mental acuity and endurance.

And that means we’re back as well providing commentary, entertainment and gossip throughout the show’s lengthy running time. Do come along and keep us company, we’ll be reading your tweets all night.

And feel free to dip in and out, on previous form the show will still be going on past midnight. With a new antagonist and prize fund we don’t know if there have been any other changes – the presenting team of Elton and Elmar Paulke hasn’t changed, so you will learn as we do.

Our commentary stream – live from 7:15 to around midnight
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.

To watch it would be useful to download Opera and 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. Go into your settings (Cog top right of Speed Dial screen, then bottom) – go to Privacy settings, click on Enable VPN. Go to Pro7 stream, click on blue VPN symbol in address bar, turn it on for Germany. Hassle but should work!

Back up – best in Opera or Firefox. Best with ad-block.

@bothersbar, @danielpeake, @davidjbodycombe @sensei256, @ogbajoj

Tschüß!

Everything’s going to be like Taskmaster now

By | September 28, 2017
2 Comments

Coming screeching in like a screeching thing, ITV2 are piloting a show called Crashtag which is described on SRO, where you can get tickets, thusly:

Crashtag! is a brand new ITV2 gameshow from the award-winning, critically-acclaimed comedy act Goose.

Two teams compete in a series of innovative, strobe-speed challenges that defibrillate the meaning of the word ‘gameshow’. Come and be in the audience! You won’t know what’s hit you but you’ll like it.

Meanwhile Chortle are describing it as “a Taskmaster-style series of physical challenges between competing teams of comedians.”

I hope you like shows that are a bit like Do A Thing And Win Some Poi Taskmaster whilst not being as good as Taskmaster because the feeling I get is most pitches over the next year or so will feature the phrase “it’s a bit like Taskmaster” in it somewhere.

Regardless, we look forward to seeing strobe-speed challenges that defibrillate the meaning of the word gameshow. Although that does make it sound a bit like Reflex.

Meanwhile Bother’s Bar favourites Barnstorm Games have released an all-new Ultimate Chase app for £2.99. It’s out on iTunes, and presumably it’s coming out on Android although Google Play don’t seem to have it yet.

Connecting People

By | September 27, 2017
11 Comments

There’s not much to talk about until next week really (where Escape and Alphabetical series two goes out, which I can now OFFICIALLY reveal now the 26th September embargo has lifted) so I was quite pleased to discover that about a month ago somebody had uploaded to Youtube another episode of Bother’s Bar favourite Connections.

And if you liked that then make sure to join us for the Schlag den Henssler Watchalong on Saturday where we’ll be playing it LIVE! during the ad breaks.

And it’s important you tweet along as it may turn up on Bother’s Bar’s Game Night 7 on the 7th October, and if you want to join the live panel for that you can now start expressing an interest.

Beyonce Knowles? No, Nick Knowles!

By | September 25, 2017
2 Comments

First there was Alexander Armstrong. Then Bradley had a go.

But this year the race for Christmas Number One is even hotter than before because, yes! Nick Knowles, host of Who Dares Wins and DIY SOS is joining in with doing promo shots involving moody lighting and listlessly staring off into the middle distance by releasing an covers album of his own, Every Kind of People, out November 3rd. From The Official Charts Company:

“Music has always been a major part of my life since I picked up a guitar when I was 14 but it’s always been a private thing”, explained Nick. “I’ve turned up at gigs without anybody knowing and plugged in my guitar.

“Weirdly when I’m away filming with the BBC, lots of the crew play guitars and we sing when we are in hotels rooms. I even found myself on the rooftop of a Soho hotel with Biffy Clyro after the NME Awards and ended up playing songs until 5 o’clock in the morning.”

Nick is the latest TV star to swap small screen stardom for hopeful Official Chart success. The likes of impressionist Alistair McGowan, actor Sheridan Smith and comedian Jason Manford are releasing their debut albums later in 2017, while TV personalities Alexander Armstrong and Shane Richie will also release new material.

As far as we’re aware, Alexander Armstrong not only has Peter and The Wolf coming out but an album of Christmas songs, In A Winter Light, out November 24th. Bradley Walsh has a follow-up to last year’s biggest selling album of the year which Amazon have down as Album 2, but it can’t be called that surely. Rose d’Or winning gameshow host Jason Manford, as alluded to, has A Different Stage coming out October 6th.

I asked on Twitter:

YOU said:

Meanwhile, after a suggestion of Paul Coia:

I’m sorry this post is “a bit Digital Spy”.